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Tangney, Dorothy Margaret (1911 - 1985)

Dame, DBE, BA, DipEd.

Born
13 March 1911
Perth, Western Australia, Australia
Died
1 June 1985
Occupation
Parliamentarian

Summary

In the Queen's Birthday list (8 June 1968) Dorothy Tangney became the first Western Australian born woman to be appointed Dames Commander of the British Empire for services to the Western Australia Parliament. She was a senator for Western Australia in the Senate of the Australian Parliament from 1943 until she retired in 1968.

Details

A former schoolteacher Dorothy Tangney became the first woman member of the Australian Senate. An advocate for health and welfare, she served on the Joint Committee on Social Security 1943-1946 and served as a senator from 1943 until she retired in 1968. Dorothy Tangney featured on the 45c stamp (1973) and the electoral division of Tangney in Western Australia is named after her. Also in 1999 the street, formerly known as Administration Place (Canberra), was changed to Dorothy Tangney Place. In the Queen's Birthday list (8 June 1968) Dorothy Tangney became the first Western Australian born woman to be appointed Dames Commander of the British Empire for services to the Western Australian Parliament.

Sources used to compile this entry: http://www.nwmc.org.au/history2/biogs/tagney.htm accessed 23/01/2002 http://www.curriculum.edu.au/democracy/connect/classact/polact.htm accessed 23/01/2002.

Archival resources

National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection

  • Papers of Dorothy Margaret Tangney, 1938-1986, 1938 - 1986, MS 7564; National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection. Details
  • Parliamentarians' questionnaires, 1982 - 1983, MS 8806; National Library of Australia Manuscript Collection. Details

Published resources

The Australian Women's Register Exhibitions

Book Sections

  • Watson, Judyth [ed.], 'Dorothy Tangney - biography and reproducation of key parliamentary speech', in We Hold Up Half the Sky: The Voices of Western Australian ALP Women in Parliament, Australian Labor Party (Western Australian Branch), Perth, 1994. Details

Journal Articles

  • Lawrence, Carmen, 'Commemoration biography of Dorothy Tangney', Papers in Labour History, vol. 8, 1991. Details

Theses

Online Resources

See also

  • Arnold, John and Morris, Deirdre (eds), Monash Biographical Dictionary of 20th Century Australia, Reed Reference Publishing, Port Melbourne (Vic.), 1994, 568 pp. Details
  • Australian Electoral Commission, 'List of Electoral Divisions Named After Women', 10 May 2002, http://www.aec.gov.au/history/women/women3.htm. Details
  • Draper, W J (ed.), Who's who in Australia 1983, 24 edn, The Herald and Weekly Times, Melbourne, 1983, 960 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
  • Popham, Daphne; Stokes, K.A.; Lewis, Julie, Reflections : profiles of 150 women who helped make Western Australia's history; Project of the Womens Committee for the 150th Anniversary Celebrations of Western Australia, Carrolls, Perth, Melbourne [etc.]:, 1979, 266 pp. Details

Anne Heywood

Created: 23 January 2002, Last modified: 29 September 2009

Site-wide information and acknowledgements

National Foundation for Australian Women The University of Melbourne, eScholarship Research Centre

http://www.womenaustralia.info/biogs/AWE0243b.htm

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