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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-12-04 Daily Xml
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Catherine Helen Spence Memorial Scholarship

The Hon. J.S. LEE (14:43): My question is to the Minister for Human Services regarding the Catherine Helen Spence Memorial Scholarship. Can the minister please provide an update to the council about a recent event held to celebrate scholarship recipients?

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (Minister for Human Services) (14:44): I thank the honourable member for her question and for her ongoing interest in these issues. The name of Catherine Helen Spence is very well known to many South Australians, particularly given her role as a leader in the suffrage movement before the turn of the previous century. Catherine Helen Spence was the vice-president of the Women's Suffrage League and the first woman in Australia to seek elected office.

She put in an incredible effort to secure the vote for women, and her tireless drive to better the lives of South Australian women as well as destitute and orphaned children is embedded into the fabric of our state. She is commemorated in a scholarship, an electoral district, a street name and a statue in Light Square and numerous government offices and public buildings.

She is also commemorated by each recipient of the Catherine Helen Spence Scholarship, which commenced after her passing, the first recipient being, in 1912, Dorothea Proud, who was interested in the lives of working women in factories. With her scholarship, she researched British women in munitions factories, gaining a doctorate from the London School of Economics in 1916. When her thesis was published, the British Prime Minister, Lloyd George, wrote the preface. She worked in the welfare section of the British Ministry of Munitions from 1915 to 1919 and was awarded a CBE in 1917.

In Adelaide, Dorothea Proud gained a law degree, being admitted to the bar in 1928. She worked for women's welfare, lectured in Social Science at the University of Adelaide and was a member of the Catherine Helen Spence Memorial Scholarship Committee until 1962.

The Catherine Helen Spence committee recently partnered with the Fay Gale Centre at the University of Adelaide to commemorate all the recipients. The Fay Gale Centre has an important role in that it is a research body that undertakes to advance social justice in gender, gender relations and sexuality. The centre provides advocacy, support, mentoring and national and international networking to researchers to develop this field of knowledge and strives to improve gender equity in research.

Professor Emerita Fay Gale AO was the recipient of the 1971 Catherine Helen Spence Scholarship. She was the first woman appointed professor at the University of Adelaide and the first pro-vice chancellor and woman in senior management at the university. Professor Gale's research focused on Aboriginal women and Aboriginal communities and was influential in arguments for self-determination and recognition of the stolen generations. As vice-chancellor at the University of Western Australia, she initiated wideranging reforms aimed to eliminate discrimination against women and was a pioneer in developing programs for equal opportunity and equity in the university sector.

Our thanks go to the committee of the Catherine Helen Spence Scholarship, particularly Emerita Professor Margaret Allen for organising this important event. We congratulate all of the scholarship awardees, who have greatly benefited from this important scholarship, and look forward to their work advancing a continued status of women in South Australia and beyond.

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