Women and government in Australia

From the turn of the 20th century, women have participated in government in Australia. Following federation, the government of the newly formed Commonwealth of Australia passed the "Commonwealth Franchise Act 1902" allowing most women to both vote and stand in the federal election of 1903. The crown colonies of South Australia and Western Australia granted women the vote before federation, and the states of New South Wales, Tasmania, Queensland and Victoria also passed legislation allowing women to participate in government at the state and local levels following federation. Indigenous Australian women did not achieve suffrage at all levels of government and in all states and territories until 1962.

Although Australia was the first country to allow women to stand in elections, women were not successful at a federal election until 1943. In general women have been slow to enter all levels of politics in Australia. Most states are yet to have a female Premier and neither of the main political parties has had a federal parliamentary female leader.

Women's suffrage

Women's suffrage groups began to appear in the Australian political landscape in the 1880s. The first, the Victorian Women’s Suffrage Society, was formed by Henrietta Dugdale in Victoria in 1884. The organisations involved in the suffrage movement varied across the colonies. A unified body, the Australian Women's Suffrage Society was formed in 1889, the societies aims were to educate women and men about a women's right to vote and stand for parliament. Key figures in the Australian suffrage movement included, from South Australia Mary Lee and Catherine Helen Spence, in Western Australia Edith Cowan, from New South Wales Maybanke Anderson, Louisa Lawson, Dora Montefiore and Rose Scott, Tasmanians Alicia O'Shea Petersen and Jessie Rooke, Queenslander Emma Miller, and Victorians Annette Bear-Crawford, Henrietta Dugdale, Vida Goldstein, Alice Henry and Annie Lowe.

In 1861 land-owning South Australian women were able to vote in local elections. In 1894, South Australia became the second jurisdiction in the world extend franchise to women and the first to allow women to stand for State Parliament. South Australian women voted for the first time in the 1896 South Australian House of Assembly election. In 1897 Catherine Helen Spence became the first woman political candidate when she ran for election to the National Australasian Convention as one of ten delegates, but came 22nd out of 33 candidates. In 1899 Western Australian women achieved voting rights for State elections but not the right to stand for State Parliament. In 1901 women from both South and Western Australia voted in the 1901 federal election.

On 12 June 1902 the "Commonwealth Franchise Act" came into effect, granting most Australian women the right to vote and stand in Commonwealth elections. Franchise of Indigenous Australians at the federal level was not universal until 1962, and voting by Indigenous Australians was not compulsory until 1984. The first election at which women used both the right to vote and stand for election was held 16 December 1903. Four women stood for election, Selina Sarah Elizabeth Anderson stood for election to the House of Representatives for the Division of Dalley, Vida Goldstein, Nellie Alma Martel and Mary Ann Moore ran for Senate positions; none were successful.

Following the successful inclusion of women in the 1903 election, many Australian women and the Australian Parliament, led by Prime Minister Alfred Deakin used their experience to promote women's suffrage in the United Kingdom and elsewhere. 'Trust the Women Mother, As I Have Done', banner painted by Dora Meeson was carried at the head of the Australian and New Zealand Women Voters' Committee contingent in the Women's Suffrage Coronation March in London on 17 June 1911.

New South Wales, Tasmania, Queensland and Victoria followed the lead of the other states allowing women to vote, and later to stand for election. Victoria, the last state to grant Women's suffrage, had briefly allowed women to vote when the "Electoral Act" 1863 enfranchised all ratepayers listed on local municipal rolls. Women in Victoria voted in the 1864 general election. The legislative mistake was quickly repaired in 1865, it took 19 private members' bills from 1889 until Victorian women gained the vote in 1908, and were able to exercise the vote in 1911. Women in the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory were, as federal subjects, eligible to vote at the federal level from their establishment, by the time the territories achieved self-government in 1947 and 1987 respectively they did not need to enact specific legislation enable the women's vote.

The right to vote in local government elections was granted later in most jurisdictions than it was at the state and federal levels. The right to vote in local elections was also not automatic as property ownership qualifications limited the eligibility to vote and stand for local elections.

Women in government

Commonwealth government

In most countries, women entered parliament soon after gaining the right to stand. The first women successfully elected to the Commonwealth government were both elected in 1943, 40 years after they were able. The major Australian political parties did not support any female candidates until the Second World War, until this time all female candidates were independent or backed by minor political parties. In 1943 and with major party backing, Dame Enid Lyons was elected to the House of Representatives as the member for the Division of Darwin, which was located in Tasmania, and Dorothy Tangney was elected to the Australian Senate representing Western Australia. In 1949 Enid Lyons became the first woman cabinet member, however her portfolio of Vice-President of the Executive Council did not involve the administration of any department. In 1966 Senator Dame Annabelle Rankin became the first woman with a federal portfolio when she became Minister for Housing. In 1975 Senator Margaret Guilfoyle was the first female cabinet minister with a portfolio, Education.

In 1983 Ros Kelly was the first woman to give birth while an MP. In 1986 there were two firsts, Joan Child became the first female Speaker of the House of Representatives and Janine Haines became the first woman to lead a parliamentary party when she became head of the Australian Democrats. Margaret Reid became the first female President of the Senate in 1996. In 2007 Maxine McKew became the first woman to unseat a sitting prime minister in his own electorate.

Kathy Sullivan, with a total service of 27 years, is the longest serving female federal parliamentarian. She was the first woman to have served in both the Senate and the House of Representatives.

In the Forty-First Parliament of Australia there are 23 female senators and 37 women in the House of Representatives.

Commonwealth Public Service

The "Commonwealth Public Service Act 1902" stated that every female officer was "deemed to have retired from the Commonwealth service upon her marriage", the very great majority of women were effectively blocked from non-secretarial positions in the Commonwealth Public Service. In 1949 women were allowed into the clerical division of the service but they remained restricted by the marriage rule. In 1966 Australia became one of the last democratic countries to lift the ban on married women in the public service.

tate government

The first woman elected to a state parliament was Western Australian Edith Cowan when she was elected to the Western Australian Legislative Assembly in 1921. Millicent Preston-Stanley was elected to the New South Wales Legislative Assembly in 1925, Irene Longman was elected to the Queensland Legislative Assembly in 1929 and Millie Peacock was elected to the Victorian Legislative Assembly in 1933. Ironically, South Australia as the first state to allow women to sit in state parliament, was also the last to have a female sitting member when Joyce Steele and Jessie Cooper were elected on the same day in 1959. Both the Australian Capital Territory Legislative Assembly and Northern Territory Legislative Assembly had women in their inaugural Parliaments. Women were not elected to the Upper House of state parliaments until after World War II.

In 1989 Rosemary Follett became the first female head of government in Australia, as Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory. Carmen Lawrence was the first female premier of an Australian state when she took office in February 1990. She was followed by the appointment of Joan Kirner as Premier of Victoria in 1990. Clare Martin was Chief Minister of the Northern Territory from 2001 to 2007. Anna Bligh became Premier of Queensland in 2007.

The Queensland Legislative Assembly currently has the highest female parliamentary representation in Australia and the third highest in the world with 30 out of 89 Members being women. [cite news |first= Nicole|last= Sanderson|title= in the hot seat - Lindy Nelson-Carr|url= http://www.citylifemagazine.com.au/Townsville/online_magazines/06dec/pdf/12.pdf|work=profile |publisher= CityLife Townsville|date= December 2006|accessdate=2007-07-29 |format=PDF] [cite web |url=http://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/view/legislativeAssembly/members_women.asp?area=members&LIndex=1&SubArea=women&Bindex=4 |title= Women in the Queensland Parliament|accessdate=2007-07-30 |format= HTML]

Local government

The first woman elected to a local government authority in Australia was Grace Benny, who was elected to the Brighton Council in South Australia in 1919. Mary Rogers was elected to Richmond City Council, Victoria in 1920 and Elizabeth Clapham was elected to Western Australia's Cottesloe Town Council. Queensland's first female councillor was Dr Ellen Kent-Hughes, elected to Kingaroy Shire Council in 1925. New South Wales' first female alderman was Lilian Fowler, elected in 1928 to Newtown Municipal Council; she was later to become Australia's first woman mayor. New South Wales also produced Australia's first female Lord Mayor, Alderman Joy Cummings, who was elected to Newcastle City Council in 1974. Dorothy E Edwards, Tasmania's first alderman, was elected to Launceston City Council in 1950. In 1951 the Australian Local Government Women's Association (ALGWA) was formed. A unique organisation, it is an association of local government women helping other women to join them.

In 1975 Western Australia and the Northern Territory elected their first women mayors, Councillor Evelyn H. Parker of Subiaco and Dr Ella Stack of Darwin City respectively.

In the 1980s women began to hold the position of Lord Mayor in the capital cities for the first time, including:
* Brisbane - Sallyanne Atkinson (1985-91)
* Hobart - Doone Kennedy (1986-96)
* Melbourne - Lecki Ord (1987-88) and Winsome McCaughey (1988-89)
* Sydney - Lucy Turnbull (2003-04) and Clover Moore (2004-).

ee also

*Women in the Australian House of Representatives
*Women in the Australian Senate
*Women in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly

References

*Commonwealth Office of the Status of Women. 2002. [http://ofw.facs.gov.au/downloads/pdfs/centenary_suffrage_brochure_booklet.pdf Our Centenary of Women's Suffrage]
*Haines, J. 1993. "Suffrage to Sufferance". Allen and Unwin. ISBN 1-86373-365-5
*Parliament of New South Wales. [http://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/prod/web/common.nsf/key/HistoryWomeninParliament Women in Parliament]
*Sawer, M. 2001. [http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/94713ad445ff1425ca25682000192af2/3067a337a2f2c855ca2569de001fb2dc!OpenDocument Women and government in Australia] , In "Year Book of Australia", 2001, Australia Bureau of Statistics, Catalogue #1301.01
*Sawer, M. and Simms, M. 1993. "A woman's place". Allen and Unwin. ISBN 1-86373-169-5
*Scott, M. 2003. [http://ofw.facs.gov.au/downloads/pdfs/meeson_suffrage04.pdf How Australia led the way: Dora Meeson Coates and British Suffrage] . Commonwealth Office of the Status of Women ISBN 1-877042-40-4
*Walsh, K. Ed. 2004. [http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/pubs/pops/pop41/pop41.pdf One Hundred Years of Women's Suffrage in Australia] , Papers on Parliament No. 41. Department of the Senate