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Womens rights
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First Female Workers Riot
First Female Workers Riot occured at the Parramatta Female Factory over conditions and food deprivation. -
Victorian Women with Equal Voting rights in Local Government
From the 1860s (and possibly as early as 1856), Victorian women landowners had equal rights with male landowners to vote in Victorian Local Government elections. -
NSW Married Women's Property Act
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First Australian Suffrage Society
Henrietta Dugdale and Annie Lowe formed the Victorian Women’s Suffrage Society -
Organising women’s suffrage in South Australia
Women’s Suffrage League formed in South Australia -
Call for
On January 14, 1890, a public meeting in Adelaide was held to form the "Women's Trade Union of South Australia," Mrs. Mary Lee, in speaking said : " They wished to insist upon equal pay for equal work without regard to gender " South Aiustralian Register 15 Jan, 1890 -
Votes for women in South Australia
The proclamation of South Australia's Suffrage Act, assented to by Queen Victoria on 2 February, gave women an equal right with men to vote, and to stand for election to the Colony's House of Assembly.
Women with property could also vote in Legislative Council elections, but women could not stand for the upper House of the parliament until 1959. -
Women win the vote in Western Australia
West Australian women win the vote in WA elections with Queen Victoria’s assent to the Bill passed by the WA parliament on 15 December 1899 -
Australian Constitution
Queen Victoria's Assent enacts the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution -
First Australian Women to Receive the Vote
Commonwealth Franchise Act passed, enabling all women (with the exception of Aboriginal women in some states) to stand for federal parliament and vote in federal elections -
Federal suffrage
Commonwealth Franchise Act grants right to vote and stand for election for the Australian parliament to women on the same basis as men, with Aboriginal people in some States still without this right -
First Australian women stand for federal parliament elections
Vida Goldstein, Nellie Martel, and Mary Ann Moore Bentley stand for the Senate, and Selina Siggins for the seat of Dalley in the House of Representatives -
Votes for women in Tasmania
Tasmanian women won an equal right with men to vote in elections for the House of Assembly. Women with property were eligible to vote for the Legislative Council and from 29 October 1920 those who served in the 1914-18 war were also eligible to vote for the upper House. An equal right to stand for election to both Houses was won two years later. -
Australian Exhibition of Women’s Work opens
Opening of the Australian Exhibition of Women’s Work in Melbourne by Lady Northcote, with Pattie Deakin running a model creche during the five-week exhibition showcasing the work of musicians, artists and craftswomen -
Votes for women in Victoria
Women in Victoria won an equal right with men to vote in State elections. Only women who met the propery qualification could vote in Legislative Council elections. Victorian women won an equal right o stand for election to both Houses of their State parliament in 1924. -
First female member of a local government council in Australia and Australia's first politician
Susan Grace Benny became the first female member of a local government council in Australia, on 22 December 1919. -
First woman elected to an Australian parliament
Edith Cowan (Nationalist, West Perth) became the first woman to be elected to an Australian parliament. She served in the Western Australian Legislative Assembly until 22 March 1924. -
Australian Federation of Women Voters
Bessie Rischbieth founded this federated body of Australian women’s political associations as a national group to liaise with international feminist organisations and establish credentials as lobbyists and advisers at the League of Nations. An immediate success of the AFWV was lobbying prime minister Billy Hughes to have a woman included on Australia's delegations to the annual League of Nations General Assembly. From 1922 Australia was one of the few member nations to comply with the equailty -
First woman member speaks in the NSW Parliament
Millicent Preston-Stanley, elected to the NSW Legislative Assembly in May 1925, delivered her first speech two weeks after the opening of the parliament. -
First women to have a seat in Federal Parliament
Enid Lyons and Dorothy Tangney after more than 20 years of women's struggle to get into Federal parliament finally each won a seat in the House of Representatives and the SenateParliament. They were the first women do so. -
First women elected to the federal parliament
Dame Enid Lyons becomes a member of the House of Representatives for the United Australia Party, and the Australian Labor Party’s Dorothy Tangney takes a seat in the Senate representing West Australia -
SA Council of Aboriginal Women
Founded by Gladys Elphick, a Kaurna descendant -
Zelda D'Aprano
In 1969, Zelda D'Aprano chained herslef to the Commonweath Building in Melbourne. 35 years later (2004) she was awarded the Officer of the Order of Australia in recognition of her campaigning on women's workplace issues. -
Equal Pay
After decades of campaigning, Australian women workers win equal pay rates with men doing comparable work under an Arbitration Commission decision for incremental increases, with pay parity eventually achieved in 1972 -
WEL
The Women's Electoral Lobby (WEL) began in Feb 1972 when 10 women met in a femisnists home to disuss ways of playing a more influential role in the election planned for December that year. -
Australia celebrates International Women's Day
The Australian Government held the first national conference from 31 August to 6 September in1975 on the status of women (Women and Politics) and committed Australia to celebrating International Women's Day with other member nations of the United Nations. The coinference generated a great deal of debate in Australia. Some conference delegates invaded the offices of the Canberra Times to protest about the coverage of the conference. -
Australia becomes CEDAW signatory
Australia becomes a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). -
National Foundation for Australian Women launched
The official launch of the National Foundation for Australian Women was at the National Press Club in Canberra on 1 July 1989. A series of mini-launches in all states and territories were held in the following six months. -
Women's History Month 2000 launched
Hon Margaret Reid, Senator for the ACT and President of the Senate, launched Women's History Month in Parliament House Canberra. -
Women's History Month 2002 launched
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Female Prime Minister
On May 19, 2010, a female, Julia Gillard became the first woman Prime Minister of Australia. -
AWPA Nancy-Bird Walton Memorial Award 2011
At the Australian Women Pilots' Association 2011 Annual Conference, held in Darwin, the AWPA Founder's annual award, the Nancy-Bird Walton Memorial Award 2011 was presented to Australia's first woman helicopter pilot, Rosemary Arnold of Victoria, a close friend of Nancy-Bird Walton for 46 years, "for the most noteworthy contribution to aviation by a woman in Australasia 2011". Rosemary Arnold First Females Above Australia Rosemary Arnold's book tour included her old school, St Jakobi's Luthera -
Australia's first female Prime Minister
Julia Gillard became the first female Prime Minister, serving from 24th June 2012 to 27th June 2013. -
First Aboriginal woman to have a seat in federal parliament
Olympic Hockey Gold medallist, Nova Peris was the first Aboriginal woman to be elected to a seat in Federal parliament.