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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
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INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY

Mrs GERAGHTY (Torrens) (15:28): Today I rise to belatedly mark International Women's Day. I want to celebrate the rise of women in Australian politics, but first I would like to point to a few reasons why women (and some men) still have much to do to create gender equality in parliaments. Most of us are well aware that it was many years after women attained the right to stand for parliament before a woman was elected. The first was in 1921 in the Western Australian assembly with the election of Edith Cowan. Federally it took until 1943 with the election of Dorothy Tangney to the Senate and Enid Lyons to the House of Representatives, and in South Australia, of course, Jessie Cooper and Joyce Steel were elected much later in 1959.

This is all some time ago now, but the number of women elected to parliament did not rise exponentially from those dates. In the House of Representatives women were not continuously represented in each parliament until after 1980, when they constituted only 2.4 per cent of members. Between 1949 and 1980, nine parliaments sat without any female representation in the house. The number of female members of the House of Representatives did not reach double figures until 1990. Today, 112 years after Federation, the percentage of female members in the House of Representatives remains well below that of men, at 27.5 per cent. The Senate's record is a little better, women having been continuously represented since 1943. As with the house, the number of women in the Senate did not reach double figures until 1981, and currently women constitute 39.5 per cent of the Senate.

If just getting elected was difficult for women, becoming a leader of a major party was even harder. Fortunately, though, Australia can be proud of a handful of women who have become leaders of their parties, and we should not underestimate the impact on the electorate of seeing women attain high office. A recent analysis of the effect of Julia Gillard's gender on voters found that her prime ministership fuelled a perception that politics is no longer just a man's game.

The Australian Democrats have had a number of woman as leaders, starting with Janine Haines in 1986, but it was not until 1990 that two women became leaders of a major party. I speak, of course, of Carmen Lawrence and Joan Kirner, who were not only party leaders, but premiers of their states. Carmen Lawrence became the first female premier in February 1990, and Joan Kirner became premier in August 1990. Carmen and Joan lost the elections that followed their elevation to premiership, but their Queensland successor, Anna Bligh, won a second term as premier in 2009.

In 2011 two more female premiers came into power, Kristina Keneally in New South Wales and Lara Giddings in Tasmania, and of course, as I said before, we have Julia Gillard as Prime Minister. It is a short grievance today and there is not enough time to mention all the successful women in Australian parliaments, but I would quickly like to acknowledge that in the ACT and the Northern Territory women have become chief ministers: in the ACT, Kate Carnell, Rosemary Follett and Katy Gallagher; and in the Northern Territory, Clare Martin.

I also acknowledge that the member for Heysen led the Liberal Party in this state and that a number of women have been deputy leaders. Also, I should mention Karlene Maywald, who was the leader of the National Country Party and Lyn Breuer, the member for Giles, who was the first female speaker in this house. On our side of the house, the Labor Party as a whole is very encouraging of women becoming members of parliament. On a number of occasions we have had a pretty good battle, but certainly women on this side of the house know that we have a lot to contribute.

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