Julia Gillard: The latest in a long line
 From Vida Goldstein running for a federal seat back in 1903, to Julia Gillard's historical victory last week, we look back at the history of women in Australian politics.
Fortunately or otherwise, the passing of time can strip the emotive charge out of most any notable moment in history.
But right now, a week into the event, pretty much every adult in Australia has an opinion on the election of Julia Gillard as Prime Minister. Whether or not you give her a thumb up or down, few people can shy away from the fact that the news of a female Prime Minister in this great brown land is a first worth remembering.
Of course, Australian history is peppered with a plethora of firsts regarding women in politics, many of them so amazing – so laden with fortitude and heroism – that it’s a shame that the orthodoxy of Australian historians have too long dismissed the women behind these achievements.
Regarding Julia, no one knows for sure which way she will lead the party in the future. One thing is likely, however: much of the ‘heat’ surrounding her rise to the top will likely dissipate in the months to come.
 But before we lose sight of the significance of Julia Gillard’s position in Canberra, we here at Women and Leadership Australia thought we’d take a look back over our collective shoulder at some of the remarkable women who have come before her.
It starts with a vote
Whilst women in New Zealand had been granted the vote in 1893, non-Indigenous women this side of ‘the ditch’ had to wait almost another decade for that right. (Indigenous women were not granted suffrage in federal elections until 1962, which is itself a shameful fact.)
Whilst it was men who effectively ‘voted in’ this nation-wide suffrage, many Australian women were behind the push.
In the federal election of 1903, four women – three for the Senate and one for the House of Representatives – were nominated.
One of those women was Vida Goldstein (pictured above), an electoral pioneer. Vida ran for the Senate on three occasions, and was twice a House of Representatives candidate. Whilst she was never successful in her bids for election, the courage of her pioneering spirit cannot easily be forgotten.
Another leading suffragette, Edith Cowan (pictured right), was the first woman to be elected to an Australian parliament when she won a seat in the Western Australian Legislative Assembly in 1921.
 Cowan was a suffragette and social activist. Despite demeaning stereotyping, she was a formidable parliamentarian. She introduced and saw enacted the Women's Legal Status Act, which enabled women to practice law. This was a major milestone in the achievement of women's rights. The Edith Cowan University in Perth was named after her.
Edith Cowan’s victory was indeed groundbreaking, but the next hurdle proved even more difficult, as it took nearly 22 years for a woman to enter federal parliament. Ironically, this 'time lag' was the longest of any Western country.
Stepping up to Canberra: The war years and beyond
In August 1943, Australia finally elected women to Australia's federal parliament. Dorothy Tangney became a Senator for Western Australia, and Enid Lyons was elected to the House of Representatives.
Aside from her pioneering actions, Tangney was a true veteran of parliament. She went on to represent Western Australia for 25 years. In 1958 she was WA's representative at the 1958 National Conference on Equal Pay in Sydney.
As for Enid Lyons, she faced pressure at the polls from both the opposition and her own party. In the 1943 Federal election, Lyons' own party, unable to refuse her decision to stand, endorsed two men in the seat as well. She won the seat narrowly, and became the first woman elected to the Lower House. She was also the first woman in Federal Cabinet, as vice-president of the Executive Council in 1949.
Going further
It wasn’t until as recent as 1976 – a year memorable to many people living today – before a woman was appointed to a federal Cabinet portfolio. That year, Dame Margaret Guilfoyle became Minister for Social Security in the Fraser Government. She served in the governments of Malcolm Fraser between 1975 and 1983, as minister, successively, for Education, Social Security and Finance.
Many people will remember Susan Ryan for her role as the Minister Assisting the Prime Minister Bob Hawke on the Status of Women 1983–88. Before that, in 1975, she was appointed the first Labor Senator for the Australian Capital Territory. Later. she presided over the passage of the federal government's Sex Discrimination Act 1984 and the Affirmative Action (Equal Opportunities in Employment) Act 1986.
Janine Haines holds the title of another significant first. In 1986 she became the first woman to lead an Australian political party, when she was elected leader of the Australian Democrats. Whilst the Democrats hold little sway these days, under Haines they were a formidable force, holding the balance of power in the Senate and ‘keeping the b***ards honest’.
It took until 1990 before Australia saw its first female Premier. That honour went to Dr Carmen Lawrence, who became Premier of Western Australia for the Labor Party. |
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Carol Porter: 'Don't get mad: get elected' (1997) |
And the rest
Many names are missing from this glance back. Just a few of the other notable pioneering women in Australia’s political landscape include:
- Jessie Cooper and Joyce Steele – Elected to the South Australian Upper and Lower Houses in 1959
- Ros Kelly – First Australian Federal MP to give birth while in office (1983)
- Joan Kirner – Premier of Victoria for two years to 1992
- Amanda Vanstone – Holding a diverse range of portfolios from 1996 onwards
- Anna Bligh – First female Premier of Queensland in 2007
- Marion Scrymgour – First female Aboriginal minister in any government in Australia; member of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly since 2001
- Margaret Reynolds – Former Labor senator; spent over 40 years working for the equality of women and social justice reform
- Clare Martin – First female Chief Minister of the Northern Territory (2001)
- Anne Summers – Ran the federal Office of the Status of Women (1983–86); advisor on women’s issue to Prime Minister Paul Keating
- Natasha Stott Despoja – Leader of the Australian Democrats (1991–2); youngest woman ever to become a member of the Parliament of Australia
- Governor-General Her Excellency Ms Quentin Bryce AC – Australia’s first female Governor-General, appointed in 2008
Whilst each of the women briefly mentioned above can be seen as an afterthought in any essay on the subject, they ought to be remembered as individual women who fought – often with their backs to the wall – against tides of opposition not only from men in power, but also from societies that were by definition unaccustomed to the kinds of areas that they were pioneering.
Looking back, we have the power of hindsight, and the knowledge that – as of a week ago – women have now reached the highest positions of political power in this nation. None of the women mentioned in this cursory essay had that foresight.
History is often written as if the players had some sense of where they were heading. Like anyone, these women were just ordinary people, trying to do something for both themselves and for other women. Few were concerned with being the first; most just wanted to make a difference.
Many of them succeeded, but some didn’t. Irrespective of their victories, we ought to remember the spirit that drove them to change a society that would one day be so liberated that we would forget that there once ever was a fight to be waged.
Finally, if we had the ability to ask the women of history’s pages what they think of the rise of Julia Gillard to the Prime Ministerial post, it’s anyone’s guess how they would respond. Perhaps the only conjecture we can really consider comes in three brief words: ‘It’s about time’.
Additional reading
Marian Sawer and Marian Simms: A woman's place: Women and politics in Australia More
Margaret Fitzherbert: So Many Firsts: Liberal women from Enid Lyons to the Turnbull era More
Additional resources
Parliament of Australia: Parliamentary Library: Women in Politics More
Culture.gov.au: Australian women in politics More
Women Into Politics More
Australian Electoral Commission: Women in Political Arena More
Anne Summers More
Emily’s List More
Women’s suffrage around the world More
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