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Statistics of South Australian women in Parliament
The opening of the new session of Parliament was front page news when
the first two women elected to the South Australian Parliament took their
seats. From left Joyce Steele, the Premier Sir Thomas Playford, the Sergeant-at-Arms
Mr A F Dodd, the Speaker Mr Teusner and Jessie Cooper. Photograph from
10 June 1959 courtesy The Advertiser Newspapers Ltd.
Featured below are four lists of women candidates and women members of the South Australian Parliament and Federal Parliament prepared by Helen Jones from In her own name: a history of women in South Australia from 1836 revised edition (Adelaide, Wakefield Press, 1994). The lists are reproduced here with kind permission from Helen Jones. The names of South Australian women members of Parliament since 1994 have been updated by the SA Research and Family History team at the State Library of South Australia.
Women candidates for the South Australian Parliament to 1959
Women elected to the South Australian Parliament 1959—South Australian Women candidates for Federal Seats to 1958
South Australian Women elected to Federal Parliament 1958—Proportion of Women in Australian Federal and State Parliaments April 1996
Representation of women under different electoral systems in Australian Federal and State Parliaments April 1996
Women candidates for the South Australian Parliament to 1959
The list of women candidates for the South Australian Parliament to 1959 includes the percentage of votes acquired by each candidate as identified by Robert Layton Reid in Women politicians in South Australia 1959 (MLSA D3756 (T).
Susan Magarey has observed of the list of women who stood unsuccessfully for the South Australian Parliament up to 1959 in Suffrage and beyond: international feminist perspectives—
Of the nineteen female candidates for election to the South Australian Parliament between 1894 and 1959, only six were endorsed by the mainstream political parties. Two others ran as Independent Liberal and Unendorsed Liberal, a third as Anti-Communist Labor. The remaining ten included three who had the support of specifically women's organisations: the Democratic Women's Association formed on a proportional representation platform in 1937 by Jeanne Young, a collaborator with Catherine Spence in her effective voting campaign, and the Women's Non-Party Political Association, which also supported proportional representation. The rest campaigned simply as Independents. For these women, clearly, the machinery of the malestream political parties, coupled with the preferential voting system, operated to exclude women.
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Date 1918 |
Candidate Selina Siggins |
Seat Adelaide |
Party Independent |
% of votes
6.5% |
Women elected to the South Australian Parliament 1959—
|
Date
1959 |
Candidate
Joyce Steele |
Seat
Burnside |
Party
LCL |
South Australian Women candidates for Federal Seats to 1958
|
Date
1931 |
Candidate
Agnes Goode |
Seat
Adelaide |
Party
Ind |
South Australian Women elected to Federal Parliament 1958—
|
House of Representitives |
|||
|
Date
1966-69 |
Candidate
Kay Brownbill |
Seat
Kingston |
Party
LCL |
|
The Senate
|
||
|
Date
1955-65 |
Candidate
Nancy Buttfield |
Party
LCL |
The Final Report of the Joint Committee on Women in Parliament presented to the Parliament of South Australia on 29 May 1996 included statistical information on the numbers of women in the State and Federal Parliaments as at April 1996. (Parliamentary Paper 209 of 1996 page 4.)
Proportion of Women in Australian Federal and State Parliaments April 1996
|
Jurisdiction
Federal |
Total Members
224 |
Total Women
43 |
Percentage of Women
19% |
The Final Report of the Joint Committee on Women in Parliament presented to the Parliament of South Australia on 29 May 1996 included statistical information on the numbers of women in the State and Federal Parliaments as at April 1996. (Parliamentary Paper 209 of 1996 page 16.)
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