Women in the Australian Senate

There have been 110 women in the Australian Senate since the establishment of the Parliament of Australia. Women have had the right to stand for federal parliament since 1902, and there were three female candidates for the Senate at the 1903 federal election (Vida Goldstein, Nellie Martel, and Mary Moore-Bentley). However, it was not until Dorothy Tangney's victory at the 1943 federal election that a woman was elected. Since then, all states and territories have had multiple female senators – in chronological order: Western Australia (1943), Queensland (1947), Victoria (1950), South Australia (1955), Tasmania (1975), the Australian Capital Territory (1975), New South Wales (1987), and the Northern Territory (1998).

History
The passage of the Commonwealth Franchise Act allowed women to both vote and stand for election to the Parliament of Australia. Numerous women stood unsuccessfully as independents or as representatives of minor parties for election to the Senate, including prominent South Australian suffragist Vida Goldstein, who ran in 1903, 1910 and 1917. However, women were not successful in entering federal politics until World War II.  The major parties did not endorse any female candidates for the Senate before the War.

The first woman to be elected to the Senate was Labor representative Dorothy Tangney in 1943; she represented Western Australia. Following Tangney's entry into politics, the Senate has continuously had women members. (By contrast, although the first woman member of the House of Representatives, Dame Enid Lyons, was also elected in 1943, that house has had women members continuously only since 1980.)

The second woman elected to the Senate, Annabelle Rankin, also achieved a number of firsts for women: she was the first female Whip, and she was the first woman with a federal portfolio when she became Minister for Housing in 1966. In 1975, Margaret Guilfoyle became the first female cabinet minister with a portfolio.  In 1996 Margaret Reid was the first woman elected as President of the Senate.

Women in the Senate have made significant changes to Australian law which have benefited women. For example, a  private member's bill written by Senator Susan Ryan was crucial to the development of the Sex Discrimination Act 1984, the Affirmative Action (Equal Employment Opportunity for Women) Act 1986, the Public Service Reform Act 1984 and the Equal Employment Opportunity (Commonwealth Authorities) Act 1987.

With the appointment of Sarah Henderson to the Senate on 11 September 2019, the number of women in the chamber was equal to the number of men for the first time in history.

List of women in the Australian Senate
Names in bold type indicate Ministers and Parliamentary Secretaries.
Names in italics indicate appointments made under section 15 of the Constitution, or through disqualification.  Names marked with an asterisk (*) also served in the House of Representatives. Where no closing date is shown, the Senator's term of service is unexpired.

Timeline

Proportion of women in the Senate
Numbers and proportions are as they were directly after the beginning of Senate terms and do not take into account deaths, resignations, appointments, defections or other changes in membership. As senators typically serve six-year terms, in the absence of a double dissolution, the numbers of female senators overlap two “terms”. State-based Coalition parties that caucus with one of the major parties (Liberal National Party, Country Liberal Party) have been included in the Liberals' or Nationals' totals.

See also
Women and government in Australia
Women in the Australian House of Representatives

Notes

References

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Senators
Women, Senate
*
Women