Longman, Irene Maud (1877 - 1964)

Irene Longman was the first woman to both stand for and be elected to the Queensland Parliament. She was a member of the Country and Progressive National Party for the electorate of Bulimba from 11 May 1929 to 11 June 1932. Longman moved Address-in-Reply to the Governor's Opening of Parliament Speech on 21 August 1929.

Irene Longman was educated at Sydney Girls' High School and Redlands (SCEGS) North Sydney. After obtaining a Kindergarten Teaching Diploma she taught at Normanhurst, Sydney Girls' Grammar School and Rockhampton Girls' Grammar School.

An activist in many women's organisation Longman was President of the National Council of Women of Queensland from 1920 to 1924; Honorary President Queensland Citizenship League; Honorary President Queensland Association for the Welfare of the Mentally Deficient; Vice-President of the Queensland Branch Lyceum Club; Vice-President of the Queensland Womens' Peace Movement and Officer of the Creche and Kindergarten Association.

Also Longman is responsible for the first Queensland women police officer and for changing the meeting place of the Children's Court from its meeting place in the precinct of the Police Court.

Presided

• National Council of Women of Queensland (1905 - )

  [1920 - 1924]

Theses

• Fallon, Patricia, 'So Hard the Conquering: A Life of Irene Longman', MA thesis, Griffith University, 2002, 175 pp. [ Details... ]

See also

• Fitzherbert, Margaret, Liberal women : Federation to 1949, Federation Press, Sydney, 2004, 224 pp. [ Details... ]
• Lake, Marilyn, 'Childbearers as Rights-bearers: feminist discourse on the rights of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal mothers in Australia, 1920-50', vol. 8, no. 2, Women's History Review, 1999, http://www.triangle.co.uk/wht/08-02/ml.pdf. [ Details... ]
• Lake, Marilyn, 'A Republic for Women?', in Pamela Denoon Lecture 1999, Women's Electoral Lobby, Canberra, 1999, http://www.wel.org/announce/denoon/99mlake.htm. [ Details... ]
• Lake, Marilyn, Getting Equal: The History of Australian Feminism, Allen & Unwin, St Leonards, New South Wales, 1999, 316 pp. [ Details... ]
• Queensland Parliamentary Library, 'Women Members of the Legislative Assembly frome 1929', 2 Nov 2001, http://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/Parlib/Members/women/IndexWomen.htm. [ Details... ]