Meet Dorothy Tangney the first Australian woman to be elected into the Senate.
Welcome to Season 3 of Ladies in the House, a Museum of Australian Democracy and History Detective collaboration.
In this 4-part series we are going to celebrate the lives of four incredible women and how they contributed to Australian democracy.
Meet Dorothy Tangney the first Australian woman to be elected into the Senate.
Download the FREE teaching resources and the transcript for this episode at the MoAD website.
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Music written and performed by Kelly Chase.
Hi, this is Kelly Chase and you are listening to Season 3 of a Museum of Australian Democracy and History Detective Collaboration: Ladies in the House. In this 4-part series we are going to celebrate the lives of four incredible women and how they contributed to Australian democracy.
Today I would like to introduce you to Dame Dorothy Tangney, who was the first woman elected into the Senate in 1943 and remained a senator for the next 25 years. On the same day that she was sworn into the Senate, Enid Lyons became the first female to be sworn into the House of Representatives. So, although there had been women elected in to state parliaments, they were the first women in the federal parliament. There is another episode in this season of Ladies in the House that will tell you all about Enid Lyon’s story.
Dorothy had a tough start to life, she was born in 1907, which means she was around 9 to 14 years old when the First World War was happening. Her family were not a wealthy family, but due to her hard work and intelligence, she won a scholarship to a Convent School in Western Australia.
In 1929, when she was in her early 20s, Australia was plunged into the Great Depression—an economic crisis—and not only did she witness her father lose his job, but she witnessed many unemployed men begging for food. This moved her to become involved in the community.
Dorothy began her working career studying at university to become a teacher and she supported herself by working as an assistant in a school. Here she saw many disadvantaged children suffering from poverty and malnutrition and she would take underprivileged students on holiday and health camps. Also, if any of the children ended up in children’s court, she would be there providing assistance. She cared deeply about improving her community also founded and was president of a number of clubs and organisations that helped to support disadvantaged members of the community.
Dorothy was aiming for a career in politics, she was involved in the Labor party and attended many conferences, but in the political climate of the 1930s, it was difficult for a woman to even get preselected. Preselection is the part before an election where a candidate is chosen by the political party to run for the election. Often, the only reason that parties would choose a woman for preselection, was if they definitely knew that they could not win. In 1936, when she was still in her 20s, she ran for the seat of Nedlands in the State election, but unfortunately, she lost. Then she ran again in 1939 and lost again. In 1940, she decided to run for the Senate and lost again. But this gave her valuable experience in running in a campaign. And if there was one thing that Dorothy Tangney had, it was resilience and in 1943 she found herself running again and this time she made history and became Australia’s first female senator. She was 36, she was single and she was ready to blaze a trail through Australian politics. Now just to assure you that this win was no fluke, she was enormously popular and she maintained this winning streak keeping her position in the Senate for the next 25 years.
Because of her experiences as a young teacher working with underprivileged children, she was an advocate of the Federal government providing improved social services, housing and education. In her maiden speech- which is the first speech a politician makes to parliament- she proclaimed, “Social security is the right of every Australian”. She fought to increase pensions for deserted wives and widows and child support for struggling families. Another issue that she rallied for was a better national health system, including improving hospitals, providing medical benefits to all and pensions for people who were blind. In her words, “We must have a healthy community and prevention is better than cure.”
She also strongly supported equal pay and equal opportunities for women. Speaking of equality, did you know that only about 4% of statues in Australia are made up of historical women? Well, the good news is, that even after her death, Dorothy Tangney is contributing to equality. Currently, there are plans to build a commemorative sculpture of both Dorothy Tangney and Enid Lyons. It is going to be located in the gardens near the Old Parliament House building.
Dorothy Tangney had grit. She knew she wanted to be a politician but it took a number of failed attempts before she finally won. What I would like you to think about today is a time in your life where you did not succeed. What could you learn from hearing Dorothy’s story of resilience and tenacity? And how could this help you when you make mistakes in the future.
This is Kelly Chase, on the case.
Before I go, if you are a teacher and would like a free lesson plan for this episode or any of the Ladies in the House season one and two episodes, you can head to the Classroom Resources page on the Museum of Australian Democracy website to download the lesson plan. Lessons include pre-listening vocabulary, reflection questions, a call to action activity and the transcript. You’ll find a link to the page in the show notes.
See you next time!