Women in the South Australian Legislative Council

There have been 24 women in the South Australian Legislative Council since its establishment in 1840. Women have had the right to vote and stand as candidates since 1894.

In 1895, South Australian Women and government in Australia, women became the first state in Australia, and some of the first in the world, to be Constitutional Amendment (Adult Suffrage) Act 1894, given the right to vote and stand for election to Parliament. The following year at the 1896 South Australian colonial election, 1896 election, the first women in Australia voted. Ironically, South Australia was the last state to elect a female representative, at the 1959 South Australian state election, 1959 election, when Jessie Cooper and Joyce Steele were elected to the Parliament of South Australia for the Liberal and Country League (LCL).

The first woman candidate for Legislative Council honours was Patience Howard, née Hawker (28 March 1900 – 9 August 1994), who stood for the Labor Party for Central No. 2 at the Members of the South Australian Legislative Council, 1953–1956, 1953 election. She was unsuccessful in this Liberal stronghold.

The first successful female candidate for the Legislative Council was Cooper. In 1975 she was joined by Australian Labor Party (South Australian Branch), Labor's first female MLC, Anne Levy (politician), Anne Levy, who would later become the first and only female President of the South Australian Legislative Council. Sandra Kanck was the first female Australian Democrats, Democrat in 1993, and Ann Bressington was the first female independent politician, independent in 2006.

List of women in the South Australian Legislative Council

Names in bold indicate women who have been appointed as Ministers and Parliamentary Secretaries during their time in Parliament. Names in ''italics'' indicate entry into Parliament through a by-election or by appointment and * symbolises members that have sat as members in both the Legislative Council and the Victorian Legislative Assembly, Legislative Assembly.

Timeline

ImageSize = width:1000 height:auto barincrement:12
PlotArea = top:10 bottom:80 right:200 left:20
AlignBars = early

DateFormat = yyyy
Period = from:1955 till:2025
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal
ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:5 start:1955

Colors =
id:LP value:blue legend: Liberal & Country League/Liberal Party of Australia
id:AL value:red legend: Australian Labor Party
id:AD value:orange legend: Australian Democrats
id:AG value:brightgreen legend: Australian Greens
id:DF value:purple legend: Dignity for Disability/Dignity Party
id:NX value:redorange legend: Nick Xenophon's SA-BEST
id:ON value:yellow legend: Pauline Hanson's One Nation
id:ID value:gray(0.6) legend: Independent

Legend = columns:3 left:150 top:50 columnwidth:300

BarData =
barset:MLCs

PlotData=
width:5 align:left fontsize:S shift:(5,-4) anchor:till
barset:MLCs
from:1959 till:1979 color:LP text:"Jessie Cooper (1959–1979)"
from:1975 till:1997 color:AL text:"Anne Levy (politician), Anne Levy (1975–1997)"
from:1979 till:1995 color:AL text:"Barbara Wiese (1979–1995)"
from:1982 till:2003 color:LP text:"Diana Laidlaw (1982–2003)"
from:1985 till:2002 color:AL text:"Carolyn Pickles (1985–2002)"
from:1990 till:1997 color:LP text:"Bernice Pfitzner (1990–1997)"
from:1993 till:2010 color:LP text:"Caroline Schaefer (1993–2010)"
from:1993 till:2009 color:AD text:"Sandra Kanck (1993–2009)"
from:1997 till:2014 color:AL text:"Carmel Zollo (1997–2014)"
from:2002 till:2018 color:AL text:"Gail Gago (2002–2018)"
from:2003 till:2006 color:AD text:"Kate Reynolds (2003–2006)"
from:2003 till:2023 color:LP text:"Michelle Lensink (2003–present)"
from:2006 till:2014 color:ID text:"Ann Bressington (2006–2014)"
from:2010 till:2023 color:AG text:"Tammy Franks (2010–present)"
from:2010 till:2023 color:LP text:"Jing Lee (2010–present)"
from:2010 till:2018 color:DF text:"Kelly Vincent (2010–2018)"
from:2018 till:2023 color:NX text:"Connie Bonaros (2018–present)"
from:2018 till:2023 color:AL text:"Emily Bourke (2018–present)"
from:2018 till:2023 color:AL text:"Irene Pnevmatikos (2018–present)"
from:2018 till:2023 color:AL text:"Clare Scriven (2018–present)"
from:2020 till:2023 color:LP text:"Nicola Centofanti (2020–present)"
from:2021 till:2023 color:LP text:"Heidi Girolamo (2021–present)"
from:2022 till:2023 color:LP text:"Laura Curran (Australian politician), Laura Curran (2022–present)"
from:2022 till:2023 color:ON text:"Sarah Game (2022–present)"
barset:skip

References

See also

{{Women and government in Australia

Women members of the South Australian Legislative Council,
Members of the South Australian Legislative Council,
Lists of women members of state and territorial legislatures in Australia, South Australia