Biography - Dame Enid Muriel Lyons - Australian Dictionary of Biography Australian Dictionary of Biography Tip: searches only the name field Tip: Use double quotes to search for a phrase This article was published in Australian Dictionary of Biography , Volume 18, (MUP), 2012 Enid Lyons, c1950 National Library of Australia, nla.pic-an10739657 Dame Enid Muriel Lyons (1897-1981), politician, was, according to her birth certificate, born on 9 July 1897 at Duck River (Smithton), Tasmania, second of four children of William Burnell, sawyer, and his wife Eliza, née Taggett. Anne Henderson has raised the possibility that her real father may have been Aloysius Joyce, son of a wealthy landowner in the Burnie district. During her childhood William transferred from Lee’s Mill to Glance Creek Mill and the family moved to Stowport. Enid and her two sisters walked two miles (3.2 km) each day to the local school, where Enid revealed an early dramatic talent in the school concert.

Her parents were a strangely assorted pair: her mother, of Cornish Wesleyan stock, was sober, industrious and teetotal, her father 'a scoffer and a blasphemer' with a strong taste for alcohol. He was something of a 'swashbuckler', Enid recalled, on whom 'the yoke of matrimony rode uneasily'. There were long separations as her father pursued work around the timber mills. Later they moved to Cooee and Eliza opened a store and a post office. Enid attended the Burnie State School. Ambitious for her children, Mrs Burnell had Enid taught elocution and encouraged her to perform whenever she had an audience. She urged her two elder daughters to continue their education at the Training College in Hobart and, visiting them there, took them to State parliament where the plump, fresh-faced, blue-eyed, 15-year-old Enid met Joseph Aloysius Lyons, Labor member for the State seat of Wilmot. In 1914 Joe Lyons became State treasurer and minister for education and Enid Burnell was posted to Burnie State School as a junior teacher.

A decorous correspondence between the minister and the young teacher led to a proposal of marriage. Enid, an active member of the Methodist Church, acquiesced to Lyons’s request that she receive instruction in the Catholic faith from Fr T. J. O’Donnell, parish priest at Stanley, and she was received into the Catholic Church on 25 March 1915. They were married on 28 April at Wynyard; Joe was 35 and Enid 17 Although the mother of six children by 1922, Enid played a leading part in Tasmanian election campaigns, talking politics, especially to women, in terms of 'pots and pans and children’s shoes'. Joe Lyons became premier in 1923 and in the 1925 election Enid herself stood for the seat of Denison, losing by only sixty votes. She had conducted her campaign amid a whooping cough epidemic, which had attacked five of her children. Then her ten-month-old baby died of pneumonia.

After Lyons moved to the House of Representatives in 1929, as member for the Federal seat of Wilmot, Enid remained closely involved in his political career, albeit often at a distance as his work took him to Canberra and Melbourne and occasionally to their much-loved Home Hill at Devonport, Tasmania. She strongly advocated his break with the Australian Labor Party in 1931 and his subsequent involvement with the embryonic United Australia Party. While there was an element of ambition in her eagerness to encourage the move, she also felt a genuine concern about what she saw as a lack of probity in Labor’s handling of the Depression-induced national financial crisis. Although pregnant, she joined the team that carried the UAP’s message around the nation, prompting a complaint from (Sir) Robert Menzies that she was stealing the limelight. At each city Enid addressed the main meeting as well as supplementary women’s meetings. 'Together on the platform, Joe and I worked like partners in a game of bridge', she later recalled. When (Sir) John Latham offered to step aside as leader of the Opposition in Lyons’s favour, it was Enid who urged Joe to accept, despite his reluctance.

On his becoming prime minister in January 1932 his first act was to write to her 'because whatever honours or distinctions come are ours not mine'. Having moved with him to the Lodge, Canberra, she lived life at 'a killing pace', much of her time devoted to touring the country and making an average of three speeches per week: once she made ten in twelve hours. Her politics were pragmatic and undogmatic; for her, party allegiance was chiefly the means of achieving equity, security and justice. She later declared that she made the same speeches after the break with Labor as before. Having given birth to her twelfth and last child in 1933, Enid Lyons battled recurrent ill health as she continued to support her husband. She accompanied him on an official visit to England in 1935 and another in 1937 when she was appointed GBE. She later wrote scornfully of the snobbery and superficiality of London society. At the Lodge she lived frugally, entertaining rarely and serving her large family simple, wholesome meals. She herself was seen by a reporter as 'wholesome' in 'a comfortable brown-flecked tweed suit, sensible, cosy'.

Unlike his predecessors, who shielded their families from publicity, Lyons skilfully exploited through press photographs the image of the devoted mother and the happy brood. Despite the demands of domesticity Dame Enid remained politically active. In 1938 she gave speech after speech on the subject of peace, always stressing however the need to prepare for war. Throughout her life she remained a staunch defender of Neville Chamberlain’s appeasement policy—indeed she later claimed that her encouragement in September 1938 prompted his appeal to Mussolini that resulted in the Munich agreement. Her continuing personal identification with her husband’s political career was evident a few weeks later in her angry and unshakeable conviction that a speech on leadership given by Menzies on 24 October was a treacherous attack on the prime minister. Significantly, she referred to their shared decision early the following year that Lyons should soon retire as 'our resignation'. In later life Enid Lyons deprecated the prevalent view that when Lyons was prime minister it was his astute and ambitious wife who made the decisions. With some justification she pointed out that raising eleven children, her husband often absent, provided little opportunity for political discussion.

But if she was not active in day-to-day politics, the enduring intimacy of their relationship ensured that at the critical moments of Lyons’s career he drew on her self-confidence, shrewdness and determination. When Joe Lyons died on 7 April 1939, Enid, exhausted and grief-stricken, plunged into a depression that only fully lifted when a daughter, noting that their Federal local member was retiring, persuaded her to stand for the House of Representatives. She recognised that an element in her low spirits had been that she was no longer 'in the thick of things'. On 21 August 1943 Dame Enid Lyons was elected member for the Tasmanian seat of Darwin (Braddon). She was the first female member of the House of Representatives; Dorothy Tangney was elected to the Senate at the same time. In her maiden speech on 29 September 1943 Enid spoke on social security, the declining birth rate, the need for an extension of child endowment, housing, the family, and the importance of looking ahead to postwar policies. Her metaphors were homely but her speech was thoughtful and substantial, compassionate and visionary.

The response, from politicians, the press and the public, was overwhelming. 'In that place of endless speaking . . . no one had ever made men weep. Apparently I had done so, without desire or intention.' While part of the response was to the significance of the moment and the novelty of a female member of parliament, it was also a tribute to her oratorical skills. Over the following years Enid Lyons spoke in the House on many subjects of particular relevance to women: pensions and benefits, housing, clothing, baby foods, child endowment, domestic economy, maternity services, discrimination against married women in the workforce, the plight of housewives, service women’s pay, widows’ pensions and the nationality of married women. But she resisted being confined to women’s issues: in her maiden speech she had observed that a woman in the public sphere must 'justify herself not as a woman, but as a citizen'. She was a capable representative of her State, participating in debate on matters such as the aluminium industry, air and shipping services to the island, and agricultural development. She also spoke on a variety of national issues including atomic energy, finance, population, industry, arbitration, social services, immigration and international affairs.

Her voice was light and cultured: the dramatic and elocutionary talents she had cultivated as a child stood her in good stead. 'I’m a bit of a rabble-rouser you know', she later confided. Menzies confessed that she could move him to tears over the condition of a railway track. Sir George Pearce found her too emotional but observed that his wife was a great admirer of her speech making. Her male colleagues treated her gallantly: Menzies called her 'remarkable and talented and beautiful'; old W. M. Hughes saw her as a bird of paradise among the carrion crows. But there was also widespread respect for her integrity and diligence. In her first term she could take some credit for the extension of child endowment, free medical treatment for pensioners and free distribution of life-saving drugs. Re-elected with increasing majorities in 1946 and 1949, Dame Enid was sworn in as vice-president of the executive council in December 1949, thus becoming the first woman member of a Federal cabinet. Although it was a significant honour she was disappointed, having hoped for a portfolio.

She later complained that it was 'a toothless position', doubting that Menzies wanted her in cabinet at all: 'they only wanted me to pour the tea'. Suffering from a thyroid problem, a persistent cancer on her nose, and long-endured pain from a pelvic fracture sustained during the birth of her first child, she struggled to cope with the demands imposed on a minister and local member. She resigned from cabinet on 7 March 1951 and did not contest the next election. On her retirement she was granted freedom of the town of Devonport. After successful treatment of her medical conditions, Dame Enid went on to another twenty years of useful public service. Throughout her career she had been actively associated with the Australian Women’s National League, the Victoria League, the Housewives Association and St Joan’s Social and Political Alliance. In 1951-62 she was a commissioner of the Australian Broadcasting Commission, becoming a close friend and confidante of the successive chairmen Sir Richard Boyer and Sir James Darling. She was made an honorary fellow (1951) of the Australian College of Nursing and founding vice-president (1954) of the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust.

Author of three memoirs, So We Take Comfort (1965), The Old Haggis (1969) and Among the Carrion Crows (1972), she also wrote (1951-54) a twice-weekly press column and gave frequent broadcasts, eliciting a large response from readers and listeners throughout Australia. She reflected often on 'the incubus of her sex' that impeded a woman’s career, but did not like to be called a feminist. On many moral issues her views, guided as always by her Catholic faith, were conservative: she disapproved of early sex education, deplored homosexuality and promiscuity, opposed divorce, and in 1973 came out fighting against abortion. On Australia Day 1980 Dame Enid Lyons was appointed AD. She died on 2 September 1981 at Ulverstone, Tasmania, and, after a state funeral, was buried at the Mersey Vale lawn cemetery, Devonport, beside her husband. Six daughters and five sons survived her; Kevin was deputy premier (1969-72) of Tasmania.

Her much loved home was acquired by the City of Devonport and its contents by the National Trust of Australia (Tasmania). Enid Lyons had inherited from her mother a high sense of duty, self-discipline, rectitude, industriousness and ambition. But she had also retained a sympathy for some of her father’s more buccaneering characteristics: his light-heartedness, his humour, his colourful vernacular speech and his gift for anecdote. In her own political career she drew on both these heritages, that of her father giving her warmth, approachability and a common touch, despite her almost regal presence. At her death, colleagues praised her intelligence, courage, compassion, humour, vivacity and charm. Select Bibliography K. S. Inglis, This is the ABC, 1983 D. Langmore, Prime Ministers' Wives, 1992 A.

Henderson, Enid Lyons, 2008 Parliamentary Debates (House of Representatives), 8 September 1981, p 971 Parliamentary Debates (House of Representatives), 8 September 1981, p 485 Australian Woman's World, 1 June 1931, p 9 People (Sydney), 6 October 1954, p 7 Australian Women's Weekly, 6 July 1977, p 39 Australian Women's Weekly, 14 July 1982, p 10 Age (Melbourne), 19 February 1980, p 9 Age (Melbourne), 3 September 1981, p 11 M. Pratt, interview with E. Lyons (ts, 1972, National Library of Australia) E. Lyons papers (National Library of Australia) private information Great Speeches of Rural Australia - Enid Lyons - ABC Rural - Australian Broadcasting Corporation) Share this: Dame Enid Lyons.

The first woman to be elected to the Commonwealth Parliament, Enid Muriel Lyons (nee Burnell) was born in the far north-west of Tasmania at Duck River (now Smithton). In 1915, at the age of 17, she married Joseph Lyons, the then Minister for Education and Railways and Tasmanian Treasurer (he later became Prime Minister). They formed a strong political partnership and had 12 children together. Enid was a teacher and was concerned with political issues and the public arena delivering her first political speech in 1920. Her intention was to attract the support of women and advocate in the area of public responsibility and liberal feminism. In 1943, four years after her husband's death, Enid Lyons became the Federal member for the Tasmanian seat of Darwin (renamed Braddon in 1955). Enid was the first woman elected to the House of Representatives and, jointly with Dorothy Tangney (WA), one of the first of two women elected to the Australian Parliament.

Her concerns included: ï¿½ A belief in the right of women to a place in government ï¿½ Issues concerning families, particularly those affecting housewives and mothers ï¿½ Improvement of maternity care ï¿½ Raising the widowï¿½s pension ï¿½ Elimination of discrimination in employment In the new Liberal Country Party Ministry under Menzies, she was appointed vice-president of the Executive Council, making her the first woman to enter a federal cabinet. During this time: ï¿½ She was responsible for the extension of child endowment in 1950 and the raising of the allowances paid to returned servicewomen. ï¿½ She lobbied for womenï¿½s right to retain nationality and citizenship on marriage to foreigners (passed 1948). On retirement due to illness her public activities included: ï¿½ Working as a newspaper columnist. ï¿½ The chairing of the Jubilee Womenï¿½s Convention (1951). ï¿½ Member of the Australian Broadcasting Commission. ï¿½ The publication of two autobiographical volumes So We Take Comfort (1965) and Among the Carrion Crows (1972).

In 1980 she was awarded the Order of Australia. Dame Enid died in 1981. These are quotes from Dame Enid Lyonsï¿½ maiden speech to Federal Parliament in 1943. "I believe, very sincerely, that any woman entering the public arena must be prepared to work as men work; she must justify herself not as a woman, but as a citizen; she must attack the same problems, and be prepared to shoulder the same burdens. "But because I am a woman, and cannot divest myself of those qualities that are inherent in my sex, and because every one of us speaks broadly in the terms of one's own experience, honourable members will have to become accustomed to the application of the homely metaphors of the kitchen rather than those of the operating theatre, the workshop or the farm. They must also become accustomed to the application to all kinds of measures of the touchstone of their effect upon the home and the family life." ï¿½I am delighted that the honorable member for Denison (Dr Gaha) should have secured the honour of having introduced to this chamber, in this debate, the subject of population...

I, like him, have pondered this subject - not with my feet upon the mantlepiece but knee-deep in shawls and feeding bottles... I believe that something more than decentralisation is necessary if the population of Australia is to be increased.ï¿½ Photo Gallery Department of Premier and Cabinet (1897-1981) First woman to be elected to the Commonwealth Parliament Enid Muriel Lyons (nee Burnell) was born in the far north-west of Tasmania at Duck River (now Smithton). In 1915 at the age of seventeen she married Joseph Lyons, the then Minister for Education and Railways and Tasmanian Treasurer (he later became Prime Minister). They formed a strong political partnership and had 12 children together. Enid was a teacher and was concerned with political issues and the public arena delivering her first political speech in 1920. Her intention was to attract the support of women and advocate in the area of public responsibility and liberal feminism. In 1943, four years after her husband's death, Enid Lyons became the Federal member for the Tasmanian seat of Darwin (renamed Braddon in 1955).

Enid was the first woman elected to the House of Representatives and, jointly with Dorothy Tangney (WA), one of the first of two women elected to the Australian Parliament. Her concerns included: A belief in the right of women to a place in government Issues concerning families, particularly those affecting housewives and mothers Improvement of maternity care Raising the widow’s pension Elimination of discrimination in employment In the new Liberal Country Party Ministry under Menzies, she was appointed Vice-President of the Executive Council, making her the first woman to enter a federal cabinet. During this time: She was responsible for the extension of child endowment in 1950 and the raising of the allowances paid to returned servicewomen She lobbied for women’s right to retain nationality and citizenship on marriage to foreigners (passed 1948) On retirement due to illness her public activities included: Working as a newspaper columnist The chairing of the Jubilee Women’s Convention (1951) Member of the Australian Broadcasting Commission The publication of two autobiographical volumes So We Take Comfort (1965) and Among the Carrion Crows (1972). In 1980 she was awarded the Order of Australia.

Dame Enid died in 1981. References: Radi, Heather (ed), 200 Australian Women: a Redress Anthology, Broadway, NSW: Women’s Redress Press Inc., (n.d.) Millar, Ann, Trust the Women, Women in Federal Parliament, Canberra: Department of the Senate, 1993. Tasmaniana Collection State Library of Tasmania Links: Lyons, Enid Muriel - Woman - The Australian Women's Register Politician Summary Dame Enid Lyons AD GBE was the first woman elected to the Australian federal Parliament, in 1943. She was also the first woman in federal Cabinet. She was appointed as a Dame Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire (Civil) on 11 May 1957 for her public services to Australia and as a Dame of the Order of Australia (AD) on 26 January 1980. Details Originally a teacher, Enid had a long-held interest in politics. In 1915 she married Joseph Lyons, who became Prime Minister of Australia in 1931. The couple had 12 children.

In 1943 Enid Lyons was elected to the House of Representatives for the seat of Darwin (in Tasmania) as a candidate for the United Australia party, where she demonstrated her concern with issues surrounding maternity care, child endowment, women's representation in parliament and discrimination in employment. Related entries Archival resources National Archives of Australia, National Office [Personal Papers of Prime Minister Gorton], 17 September 1969 - 1970, 4029449; National Archives of Australia, National Office. Details National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection [Interview with Dame Enid Lyons] [soundrecording] / [interviewer : Mel Pratt], 1972, ORAL TRC 121/30 ; Lyons, Enid Muriel (1897 - 1981); National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection. Details Papers of Dame Enid Muriel Lyons, 1931 - 1974, MS 4852 ; National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection.

Details Papers of Jack Horner, 1974 - 1980, MS 9503; National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection. Details Papers of various Australian women, MS 842 ; Rapke, Julia; National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection. Details National Library of Australia Oral History Collection Dame Enid Lyons - a tribute, 1981?, ORAL TRC 1113 ; Lyons, Enid Muriel (1897 - 1981); National Library of Australia Oral History Collection. Details Published resources The Australian Women's Register Exhibitions Faith, Hope and Charity Australian Women and Imperial Honours: 1901-1989, Australian Women's Archives Project, March 2003, . Details Smart, Judith and Swain, Shurlee (eds), 'Lyons, Enid Muriel', The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia, Australian Women's Archives Project, 2 May 2014, .

Details Books De Vries, Susanna, The Complete Book of Great Australian Women: Thirty-six women who changed the course of Australia, HarperCollins, Sydney, 2003. Details Online Resources 'Dame Enid Lyons', in George Negus Tonight, 22 September 2003, . Details National Archives of Australia, 'Primary description of person CP 928; Hon Dame Enid Muriel Lyons AD, DBE', . Details 'Lyons, Enid Muriel (18970709-19810902)', Trove, National Library of Australia, 2009, . Details Significant Tasmanian Women: Dame Enid Lyons AO (1897-1981), First woman to be elected to the Commonwealth Parliament, 2001, . Details See also 'DAME ENID LYONS', in Australians, Behind the News, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 2002, . Details Adelaide, Debra, Australian women writers : a bibliographic guide, Pandora Press, London ; Sydney, 1988, 208 pp.

Details Australian Electoral Commission, 'List of Electoral Divisions Named After Women', 10 May 2002, . Details Daniels, Kay, Uphill all the way, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, Qld, 1980, 335 pp. Details Fitzherbert, Margaret, Liberal women : Federation to 1949, Federation Press, Sydney, 2004, 305 pp. Details Fitzherbert, Margaret, So Many Firsts: Liberal Women from Enid Lyons to the Turnbull Era, The Federation Press, Leichhardt, NSW, 2009, 286 pp. Details Jenkins, Cathy, No ordinary lives: pioneering women in Australian politics, Australian Scholarly Publishing, Melbourne, 2008, 207 pp. Details Radi, Heather (ed.), 200 Australian Women: A Redress Anthology, Women's Redress Press, Sydney, 1988, 258 pp. Also available at .

Details Digital resources aussies - Lyons, Enid Lyons, Enid Information and source where you found the information (eg website url, book (A,D,T,P), encyclopaedia Title: Title is detailed, creative, sparks interest. Enid Lions- The woman who had everything Orientation: Establishes the name of the person, when and where they were born, their early family life and made them a famous person. Born on 9 July 1897 Dame Enid Lyons was the first woman in Australia to be elected to the House of Representatives.She was also the devoted wife of an Australian Prime Minister and mother of twelve children. Enid was born in what would be called very poor circumstances, her father was a working man, worked at a sawmill and always her memories of my early childhood revolve around little bush sawmills. Source: By the time Enid was fourteen she was studying at teacher’s college in Hobart. It was here she met schoolteacher Joseph Lyons. They married three years later when Enid was seventeen and Joseph was thirty-four. He had left teaching and entered state politics.

Source: As a teenager, Enid Lyons met a schoolteacher she later married; Joseph Lyons went on to become Prime Minister, and together they formed a strong political and personal partnership, raising a family of 12 children. The Lodge in Canberra was their official residence, but their weatherboard house in Tasmania was the home Enid loved. She was Joseph’s greatest asset, a popular public speaker and Australia’s best-known woman. Tragedy struck when Joseph died, leaving Enid a widow. In 1943, at the age of forty-six she became the first woman elected to the House of Representatives, a defining point in Australian history. She was made Dame Enid by the King in 1943 and Dame Enid of Australia in 1980. Her picture has also appeared on stamps. Why the person is a significant person: Why do their life is regarded as significant and why they are admirable. She was the first woman to be elected to the Australian House of Representatives as well as the first woman appointed to the federal Cabinet. Prior to these significant achievements, she was best known as the wife of the Premier of Tasmania and later Prime Minister of Australia, Joseph Lyons.

Source: Lyons worked hard in Parliament for women and children. She believed that men and women should be completely equal. In those days women often stayed at home. If they did go out to work, they earned less. Lyons brought in welfare payments for mothers and equal training allowances for women and men. Source: Reorientation: Establishes when and where the person died and the effect their work and values had on people. She was born on 9 July 1897 and lived to the ripe old age of 84, when she died on 2 September 1981. She has been referred to in a number of publications and books. Celebration of Speech: Dame Enid Lyons - YouTube Celebration of Speech: Dame Enid Lyons Want to watch this again later? Sign in to add this video to a playlist. Need to report the video? Sign in to report inappropriate content. Rating is available when the video has been rented. This feature is not available right now. Please try again later. Published on Apr 10, 2015 In honor of International Women's Day, Women's Voices Worldwide, Inc.

hosted its third annual "Celebration of Speech" on March 7, 2015 in Northampton, Massachusetts USA. Featuring more than 50 performances by women and girls of all ages, the day provided an 8-hour marathon of historic speech re-enactments, contemporary speeches by local women and girls, featured speeches by community leaders, and interlude performances by singers, ensembles, and educators. In this video, actor Jean Koester recreates parts of a speech by Dame Enid Lyons (Australia, 1897 - 1981), the first woman to be elected to the Australian House of Representatives, the first woman to be appointed to the Federal Cabinet, and a sometimes controversial speaker. Her “Speech to Parliament Upon her Election” (1943) laid out her views on what it meant to be a woman in that role, both calling upon her male colleagues to change how they listen, but also espousing her traditional views on the family and women’s affinity with domestic life. Introducing Ms. Koester is one of the event's three MCs: Jennifer Shiao Page. More info about Women's Voices Worldwide, Inc.

Enid Lyons | A tribute to Influential Australian Christians A tribute to Influential Australian Christians Posted on 27 October 2010 by A tribute to Influential Australian Christians Dame Enid Lyons (1897 – 1981 ) first woman elected to the House of Representatives Enid Lyons was a strong Catholic, who came from a very poor background. From Australia’s most provincial state, Dame Lyons rose to become the first woman in the Australian Parliament, and the first woman Cabinet Member. Dame Lyons once said that, “The foundation of a nation’s greatness is in the homes of its people.” A great orator, Dame Lyons delivered what was regarded as the finest maiden speech ever. Quoting two extracts: It was during those years that we learned those things which still characterize the great bulk of our people—hatred of oppression, love of “a fair go”, a passion for justice. It was in those years that we developed those qualities of initiative and daring that have marked our men in every war in which they have fought—qualities which, I hope, will never be allowed to die. She closed with what must have been a very moving statement.

I hope that I shall never forget that everything that takes place in this chamber goes out somewhere to strike a human heart, to influence the life of some fellow being, and I believe this, too, with all my heart: that the duty of every government, whether in this country or any other, is to see that no man, because of the condition of his life, shall ever need lose his vision of the city of God. As a Roman Catholic from Australia’s most provincial state, Enid Lyons had always had a conservative streak, despite her husband’s Labor roots. By the time she was elected to Parliament in her own right, there was very little left of her Labor ties. Her speeches in Parliament generally espoused traditional views on the family and other social issues. Source of last para : Great Speeches of Rural Australia – Enid Lyons The first woman to be elected to the Commonwealth Parliament, Enid Muriel Lyons (nee Burnell) was born in the far north-west of Tasmania at Duck River (now Smithton). In 1915, at the age of 17, she married Joseph Lyons, the then Minister for Education and Railways and Tasmanian Treasurer (he later became Prime Minister).

They formed a strong political partnership and had 12 children together. Enid was a teacher and was concerned with political issues and the public arena delivering her first political speech in 1920. Her intention was to attract the support of women and advocate in the area of public responsibility and liberal feminism. In 1943, four years after her husband’s death, Enid Lyons became the Federal member for the Tasmanian seat of Darwin (renamed Braddon in 1955). Enid was the first woman elected to the House of Representatives and, jointly with Dorothy Tangney (WA), one of the first of two women elected to the Australian Parliament. Her concerns included: Enid Lyons, Politician • Biography & Facts Enid Lyons Politician The Hon. Dame Enid Muriel Lyons, AD GBE (née Burnell; 9 July 1897 – 2 September 1981) was an Australian politician and the first woman to be elected to the Australian House of Representatives as well as the first woman appointed to the federal Cabinet. Prior to these achievements, she was best known as the wife of the Premier of Tasmania and later Prime Minister of Australia, Joseph Lyons .

Australian women in politics | australia.gov.au Australian women in politics Australian women in politics Carol Porter, Get Elected, 1997, silkscreen print. Courtesy of the State Library of Victoria: pi001700. In 1902 Australia's new Commonwealth Parliament paved the way for a new form of democracy by granting women the vote and the right to be elected on a national basis. This was a significant victory for Australia's suffragette movement. It succeeded despite strong opposition to the Commonwealth Franchise Act 1902 , which enshrined these new women's rights in law. Leading the world in rights and yet, the longest lag time for election Edith Cowan, MLA. Courtesy of A Vote of Her Own While New Zealand had granted women the right to vote in 1893, in 1902, Australia granted women the right to vote and also to seek election. This reflected the rights of women to vote and seek election in South Australia and to vote in Western Australia, rights granted in 1895 and 1899 respectively.

Indigenous women were not granted suffrage in federal elections until 1962, although Aboriginal women were granted suffrage in South Australia in 1894. A leading suffragette, Edith Cowan, was the first woman to be elected to an Australian parliament when she won a seat in the Western Australian Legislative Assembly in 1921. The victory was indeed groundbreaking, but the next hurdle proved even more difficult as it took nearly 22 years for a woman to enter federal parliament. Ironically, this 'time lag' was the longest of any Western country. The first nominations In 1903, for the first time in the British Empire, Australian women were candidates for election to a national parliament. In all, four women were nominated – three for the Senate and one for the House of Representatives. Unknown photographer, Portrait of Vida Goldstein, 190-, photograph: gelatin silver. Image courtesy of the National Library of Australia: nla.pic-an23371660 Vida Goldstein – an electoral pioneer Vida Goldstein ran for the Senate on three occasions – in 1903, 1910 and 1917.

She was also a House of Representatives candidate in 1913 and 1914. However, she was never successful in her bids for election. Apart from 'breaking the ice' by running as a candidate, she was also a vocal campaigner for issues such as equal pay for equal work, the recognition of a basic wage, the abolition of child labour and equal property rights for spouses. A true activist, Goldstein saw her nominations for parliament as an opportunity to express her views to a wider audience: I accepted nomination because I saw what a splendid educational value the campaign would have. I knew I would attract much larger audiences as a candidate than if I were advertised to give a lecture on women's part in the federal elections, or some such subject. The power of the women's vote – Western Australia Between 1910 and 1920 the power of the women's vote began to have an increasingly noticeable effect on the law and on society. Divorce laws were made more equitable, King Edward Memorial Hospital was established as a women's hospital, women justices were appointed to the Children's Court, and barmaids and female musicians were granted equal pay with men.

Edith Cowan, 1921–1925 and May Holman, 1925–1939 Edith Cowan – a pioneer for women's and children's rights at the turn of the century – became the first woman to enter any Australian parliament when she was elected to the Western Australian Legislative Assembly in 1921. Edith Cowan was a suffragette and social activist. Despite demeaning stereotyping, Edith Cowan was a forceful parliamentarian. She introduced and saw enacted the Women's Legal Status Act, which enabled women to practice law. This was a major milestone in the achievement of women's rights. The Edith Cowan University in Perth was named after her. May Holman, MLA. Courtesy of A Vote of Her Own The next woman elected in Western Australia was May Holman (1893–1939), first elected in 1925 and the first female Labour parliamentarian in the world. May had grown up with a mother who was active in Labor women's organisations and a father who was a Labor member of the Legislative Assembly in 1901–21 and 1923–25.

From 1918 she assisted her father at the Timber Workers' Union, spending nine months in the Victorian Arbitration Court. After his death in 1925, May was briefly acting secretary of the union and won pre-selection for his blue-ribbon seat of Forrest, a predominantly timber electorate. The Timber Industries Regulation Act, 1926, was largely her work. Holman was to occupy the seat of Forrest for the next fourteen years, at a time when Western Australia was at the forefront of the Australian women's movement. At her instigation, in 1938, a royal commission to inquire into sanitation, slum clearance and health and housing regulations in Perth was set up. Florence Cardell-Oliver, 1936–1956 Florence Cardell-Oliver, MLA. Courtesy of A Vote of Her Own Florence Cardell-Oliver (1876–1965), president of the Western Australian Nationalist Women's Movement, won the State seat of Subiaco in 1936, which she was to hold for 20 years. Cardell-Oliver was especially concerned about the health of children from low income families.

Cardell-Oliver was the first woman in Australia to attain full cabinet rank when she became Minister for Health in October 1949. Her efforts created the school milk scheme, which ensured that generations of children received a daily quota of free milk. 'woman's skirts rustle on the sacred benches', 1925 – New South Wales Millicent Preston-Stanley (NSW, 1925) was elected to the NSW Legislative Assembly as a Nationalist Party candidate for the Eastern Suburbs electorate. Preston-Stanley was a realist with regard to the immediate impact she would have: I'm not fool enough to suppose my going into the House is going to make any sweeping alteration. The heavens won't fall because a woman's skirts rustle on the sacred benches, so long the sacrosanct seats of the lords of creation. E. F. Smith, Millicent Preston-Stanley: A Feminist in Politics, BA (Hons) Thesis, The University of Sydney, 1977 Hon Linda Burney, MLA. Courtesy of A Vote of Her Own Since Preston-Stanley, over eighty women have been elected to Parliament, with nearly forty of them doing so now.

Overall, more than 700 women have stood for Parliament in NSW. Some of them were 'first in their field'. Helen Sham-Ho, (MLC 1988–2003) was the first Chinese-born parliamentarian in Australia. Janice Crosio, who served on the executive of all three levels of government, was the first woman New South Wales Government Cabinet Member. In 2003, Linda Burney became the first Aboriginal person elected to the NSW Parliament when she won the seat of Canterbury. Putting Skirts on the Sacred Benches Irene Longman, 1929, Queensland and the long dry until 1966 Women inside the gate of the city polling station, voting for the first time in a Queensland state election , May 1907 [suffragette movement in Queensland]. Courtesy of Oxley Library. Queensland did not enfranchise women until 1905. However, it was the second State to allow the right for women to sit in parliament, in 1915. Irene Longman was the first to stand as a candidate, endorsed by the Country–National Party and the Queensland Women's Electoral League.

Longman was responsible for women being admitted to the Queensland police force, something originally proposed by the suffragists in the nineteenth century. It was not until 1966 that a second woman, Vi Jordan, entered parliament—and she managed to get a women's toilet in the House. Annabelle Rankin was Queensland's first female Federal Member when elected to the Senate in 1947, and the first Queensland woman in the House of Representatives was Elaine Darling in 1980. When Kathy Martin (Sullivan) was elected to the Senate in 1974 she was the only Queensland woman in Federal parliament. Flo Bjelke-Petersen and Margaret Reynolds were both elected to the Senate in the 1980s. Lady Millicent Peacock, 1933, and Doris Blackburn, 1946 – Victoria Doris Blackburn. Courtesy of the National Library of Australia: nla.pic-an23193553. Women in Victoria had to wait until 1908 before they were granted suffrage in Victorian state elections and until 1923 before they were eligible to stand for the Victorian Parliament.

Lady Millicent Peacock (1870–1948) became the first female Member of the Parliament of Victoria at a by-election for the Legislative Assembly seat of Allandale, caused by the death of the sitting member, her husband. It was not until 1946 that Victorian women entered federal parliament. Doris Blackburn (1889–1970) was elected as the independent member for Bourke, her late husband's seat, although she had been campaign secretary for Vida Goldstein in the 1913 federal election. Blackburn was involved in the Free Kindergarten movement and campaigns for better education, playgrounds and creches. In 1957, with Doug Nicholls, she was a co-founder of the Aborigines Advancement League and the Federal Council for Aboriginal Advancement. Margaret McIntyre, 1948, Tasmania Margaret Edgeworth McIntyre (1886 - 1948) was a member of the National Council of Women of Tasmania, a commissioner (1940-48) of the Girl Guides' Association and established the G. V.

Brooks Community School in 1948 before being appointed O.B.E. that year. In the same year, she stood as an Independent to win the division of Cornwall in the Tasmanian Legislative Council: she was the first woman to be elected to the parliament. 'Less than four months after her parliamentary career began, she was killed when the Australian National Airways Dakota in which she was travelling crashed into a mountain near Quirindi, New South Wales'. Jessie Cooper and Joyce Steele, 1959, South Australia Although it was the first state to allow women the right to vote and stand for election, South Australia was last to have a female representative. South Australia's first female elected parliamentarians were Jessie Cooper and Joyce Steele—elected to both the Upper and Lower Houses in 1959. Breaking into federal parliament – Dorothy Tangney and Enid Lyons, 1943 Portrait of Senator Dorothy Tangney, 195- Image courtesy of the National Library of Australia: nla.pic-an23371982.

In August 1943, 22 years after Cowan was elected, Australia finally elected women to Australia's federal parliament when Dorothy Tangney became Senator for Western Australia and Enid Lyons was elected to the House of Representatives. Tangney, a 31-year-old school teacher, went on to become a veteran of the parliament, representing Western Australia for 25 years until 1968. Senator Dorothy Tangney was WA's representative at the 1958 Nationa l Conference on Equal Pay in Sydney. The decade closed with the establishment of the Combined Equal Pay Committee of Western Australia. Enid Lyons. Image courtesy of the National Library of Australia. Lyons was also a teacher and the widow of former Prime Minister Joseph Lyons. She had previously stood, along with her mother Eliza Burnell, for the ALP in the 1925 Tasmanian election, when she was defeated by only 60 votes. In the 1943 Federal election, Lyons' own party, unable to refuse her decision to stand, endorsed two men in the seat as well. Lyons won narrowly to become the first woman elected to the Lower House.

She was also the first woman in Federal Cabinet, as vice-president of the Executive Council in 1949. Lyons worked hard in Parliament for women and children. She believed that men and women should be completely equal. In those days women often stayed at home. If they did go out to work, they earned less. Lyons brought in welfare payments for mothers and equal training allowances for women and men. She was made Dame Enid by the King in 1943 and Dame Enid of Australia in 1980. Post World War II – first women political leaders, Ministers, Premiers and Prime Minister Over the past 30 years women have increased their representation in Australia's parliaments. While there has been a great deal of rhetoric from our political parties about the pre-selection of women candidates and issues such as 'quotas', their representation in both federal and state politics is still disproportionately low. Nevertheless, there have been some notable figures in the state and federal arenas. Susan Ryan, 1984, Minister for Education Terry Milligan, Susan Ryan. Courtesy of Terry Milligan and the National Library of Australia: nla.pic-an20549079.

Dame Margaret Guilfoyle was the first Australian woman to be appointed to a Cabinet portfolio when, in 1976, she became Minister for Social Security in the Fraser Government. She served in the governments of Malcolm Fraser between 1975 and 1983, as minister, successively, for Education, Social Security, and Finance. On 31 December 1979 Margaret Guilfoyle was appointed to the Order of the British Empire (Dames Commander) for her services to public and parliamentary service. Susan Ryan (1942–) was appointed the first Labor Senator for the Australian Capital Territory, 1975. In the Federal Parliament she was the Minister Assisting the Prime Minister Bob Hawke on the Status of Women 1983–88 and the Minister for Education, 1984–87. She presided over the passage of the federal government's Sex Discrimination Act 1984 and the Affirmative Action (Equal Opportunities in Employment) Act 1986.

Janine Haines, 1986, South Australia, Leader of the Australian Democrats In 1986, Janine Haines became the first woman to lead an Australian political party when she was elected leader of the Australian Democrats. Under her leadership the Democrats held the balance of power in the Senate. She significantly increased Democrat support, with the Senate vote rising to 12.6 per cent in 1990. Since Haines, the Democrats have had other female parliamentary leaders - Janet Powell, Cheryl Kernot, Meg Lees, Natasha Stott Despoja and Lyn Allison. Joan Kirner, 1990, Deputy Premier of Victoria Joan Kirner served as Deputy Premier of Victoria for a year in 1989 before serving as Premier for two years to 1992. Following the Labor Party's defeat in 1992 she became Leader of the Opposition. She resigned from parliament in 1994. She said of her time in the 'top job': My being premier, whatever people thought of my government, showed that a woman, a feminist, can be premier and win the respect of business, unions and the community.

Carmen Lawrence, 1990, Premier of Western Australia Hon Carmen Lawrence MLA. Courtesy of Carmen Lawrence In a leadership change on 12 February 1990, Dr Carmen Lawrence made history by becoming Premier of Western Australia and Australia's first woman Premier. Following Labor's narrow defeat at the 1993 State election, Dr Lawrence also became Western Australia's first woman Opposition Leader and held the positions of Shadow Treasurer and Shadow Minister for Employment and Federal Affairs. Dr Lawrence entered federal politics by winning the federal seat of Fremantle in a by-election on 12 March 1994. She was appointed Minister for Human Services and Health, and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Status of Women in March 1994. Amanda Vanstone, 1996, Minister for Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs Senator Amanda Vanstone had a diverse range of portfolios. After the national 1996 election, Senator Vanstone served as the Federal Minister for Employment, Education, Training and Youth Affairs, and in October 1997 became the Minister for Justice. Following the 1998 election she was sworn in as the Minister for Justice and Customs.

From January 2001 until October 2003 she served as Minister for Family and Community Services, and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Status of Women. Anna Bligh, 2007, Premier of Queensland Hon Anna Bligh MLA. Courtesy of Australian Broadcasting Corporation Anna Bligh (1960 – ) was elected to parliament in 1995 with a Bachelor of Arts and in 1998 became the Minister for Families, Youth and Community Care and Disability Services. She was promoted to deputy premier in 2005 and then in 2007, with Peter Beattie's retirement, Anna became the first female Premier of Queensland. A local newspaper has also managed to trace Anna's family back to Captain Bligh. Marion Scrymgour, Deputy Chief Minister of the Northern Territory Hon Marion Scrymgour. Courtesy of Australian Broadcasting Corporation Marion Scrymgour was the first female Aboriginal minister in any government in the history of Australia. Marion was born in Darwin in 1960 and raised on the Tiwi Islands.

Marion was the Member for Arafura from 2001 to 2012 and a Minister between 2002 and 2009. She has held the roles of Deputy Chief Minister, Minister for Employment, Education and Training, Minister for Family and Community Services, Minister for Child Protection, Minister for Indigenous Policy, Minister for Arts and Museums and Minister for Women's Policy. In 2009, she resigned from Cabinet and as Deputy Chief Minister, citing health reasons. Julia Gillard, 2010, Australia's first female Prime Minister Prime Minister Julia Gillard. Image courtesy of Prime Minister of Australia. Copyright Commonwealth of Australia 2011 Julia Gillard was born in Barry, Wales in 1961. Her family migrated to Australia in 1966 and she grew up in Adelaide. Ms Gillard was elected as the Federal representative for Lalor as a member of the Australian Labor Party in 1998 and continues to represent the electorate of Lalor.

Following the Australian Labor Party's victory at the 2007 Federal Election, Ms Gillard was sworn in as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Education, Employment and Workplace Relations and Social Inclusion. On 24 June 2010 she was sworn in as the 27th Prime Minister of Australia, making her Australia's first female Prime Minister. She was re-sworn in as Prime Minister on 14 September 2010 following the 2010 Federal Election and held the position until 26 June 2013. Useful links

Question: Enid Lyons was the first woman to be appointed to the federal cabinet in which country?
Answer: Australia