The Australian Women's Register

Mary Rivett was trained as a psychologist and lectured briefly at the University of Sydney. With her sister Elsie she formed the free Children’s Library and Crafts Club in 1922. In 1934 they formed the Children’s Library and Crafts Movement which after their death became the Creative Leisure Movement.

Emily Creaghe was the only woman member of Ernest Favenc’s exploring party across Northern Australia in 1883.

The Creative Leisure Movement formed out of the Children’s Library and Crafts Movement after the death of Doris Rivett and her sister Elsie.

Harriet Scott was educated by her father, A.W. Scott, and acquired a considerable knowledge of Australian plants, animals and insects. Her paintings earned high praise from the Entomological Society and she was elected, like her sister Helena, as an honorary member.

Lorelle Thompson was the National Coordinator of the Women’s Electoral Lobby from 1983-84.

Joanne Morgan was the National Coordinator of the Women’s Electoral Lobby in 1984.

Jane Elix was the National Coordinator of the Women’s Electoral Lobby from 1985-86.

Lyn Lee was the National Coordinator of the Women’s Electoral Lobby, 1986-88.

Joy Taylor was the National Coordinator of the Women’s Electoral Lobby in 1988.

Mavis Jackson was a microbiologist. She founded International House (University of Melbourne) and served as President of the Lyceum Club from 1973-75.

Professor and Head of the School of Botany at the University of Melbourne.

The Women’s Electoral Lobby (WEL) was established in Melbourne in 1972 by Beatrice Faust. She was inspired by feminists in the United States who had been rating presidential candidates. The organisation quickly spread to Sydney, Adelaide and Canberra and in 1978 WEL Australia was formed as a coalition of state, territory and regional groups. Primarily a women’s political lobby group, WEL surveyed political candidates and their policies affecting women, wrote submissions and developed media skills for women to lobby for the inclusion of women in the area of government policy. Originally the WEL campaign was based on six demands: equal pay, equal employment opportunity, equal access to education, free contraceptive services, abortion on demand and free 24-hour childcare.

Vicki Sara researches in the area of growth hormones and foetal brain development. She became the Dean of Science at Queensland University in 1996.

Vicki was the Chancellor of the University of Technology, Sydney, for three terms: 15 December 2004-14 December 2008; 15 December 2008-14 December 2012 and; 15 December 2012 until 17 February 2016.

The Abortion Law Reform Association (ALRA) was formed in response to the deaths from the widespread practice of back-yard and self-induced abortion caused by unwanted pregnancies. The Association was campaigning to put an end to the legislation in Australia which enforced abortion as illegal. In Canberra the ALRA was established by Beryl Henderson. Julia Freebury was the Sydney convenor in 1972.

In 1976 Joan Freeman became the first woman to be awarded the British Institute of Physics’ Rutherford Medal. She began her career at CSIR Radiophysics Laboratory during World War II, working on the production of a 10cm microwave radar set, and spent most of her working life at the British Atomic Energy Research Establishment at Harwell.

In 1973 Elizabeth Reid became the first adviser on women’s affairs to a head of state, being appointed in this capacity for Australian Labour Prime Minister Gough Whitlam. Reid went on to work as an adviser, administrator, consultant, educator and researcher in an international setting on issues of women and development, health and population. She is currently based in Canberra, a Visiting Fellow, State, Society and Governance Program, College of Asia and the Pacific, at the Australian National University, and an analyst, programmer, consultant and trainer in development and humanitarian assistance.

Mavis Freeman worked with Macfarlane Burnet during the 1930s and, with Burnet, succeeded in identifying the microbe responsible for Q fever. She became only the second female scientist to join the AIF and served in the Australian Army Medical Corps during World War II, undertaking research into safe methods for blood transfusion in malarial regions.

Sara Dowse is a prize-winning writer of reviews and Canberra-themed fiction. A feminist and women’s rights activist, she was a member of the Women’s Liberation Movement and the Women’s Electoral Lobby-ACT. She became the inaugural head of the Women’s Affairs Section of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet (now Office of the Status of Women) for the Whitlam government.

(This entry is sponsored by generous donation from Christine Foley.)

Galbraith, a prominent Victorian naturalist, joined the Field Naturalists’ Club of Victoria in 1923 and in 1970 was awarded their Australian Natural History Medallion. In 1950 she published Wildflowers of Victoria which by 1970 had gone to three editions.

Susan Ryan was appointed the first Labor Senator for the Australian Capital Territory, in 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. She later worked in the plastics industry, and in superannuation.

From July 2011 to 2016 she held the newly created position of Age Discrimination Commissioner with the Australian Human Rights Commission. She was also the Disability Discrimination Commissioner from July 2014 to 2016.

Susan Ryan passed away on 27 September, 2020. She was a woman of many firsts; a trailblazer for Labor women in parliament. As former prime minister, Julia Gillard, observed, ‘Every Australian’s life has been improved by her leadership on gender equality.’

Pamela Denoon was National Coordinator of the Women’s Electoral Lobby from 1982-84. She actively lobbied for women’s rights in Canberra during the 1980s, and established by bequest the National Foundation for Australian Women and the Pamela Denoon Trust.

The Pamela Denoon Trust was established from a bequest made by Pamela Denoon of $50,000. The aim of the Trust was to advance education in the community through promoting research into social issues affecting women. Grants were allocated by the Trust for a variety of projects: attendance of Indigenous women to National Women’s Conference in October 1991, research on the impact of enterprise bargaining on women, scholarships for girls in secondary schools in Papua New Guinea, programs of the National Women’s Justice Coalition including Pamela’s List, support for the Black Women’s Education Foundation and Women with Disabilities Australia, audiovisual resources on domestic violence, the Australian Women’s Archives Project of the National Foundation for Australian Women, and the activities of Women’s History Month and Women on a Shoestring Collective, among others. The Trust was wound up in 2005 having provided grants of over $90,000 from the original bequest and interest earned.

Maria De Leo was the inaugural National Coordinator of the Women’s Electoral Lobby, 1978-79.

Yvonne Carnahan was the National Coordinator of the Women’s Electoral Lobby from 1980-81.

Jessie Street was recognised nationally and internationally for her activism in women’s rights, social justice and peace. Street campaigned for equality of status for women, equal pay, the appointment of women to public office and the election of women to parliament. Co-founder of the New South Wales Social Hygiene Association (1916) and Co-founder (1928) and President of the United Associations of Women, she was the only woman on the Australian delegation to the founding conference of the United Nations in 1945 and established the UN Commission on the Status of Women and the Charter of Women’s Rights.

Lyndall Ryan was a member of the first Sydney Women’s Liberation Group in 1970. In 1974 she joined the Commonwealth Public Service as a policy analyst on women’s health and child care. She became an academic in 1977 and has held positions in Australian Studies and Women’s Studies at Griffith and Flinders Universities. She was appointed to the position of Foundation Professor of Australian Studies and Head of School of Humanities at the University of Newcastle in 1998.

Anne Levy was the first woman to preside in any house of any Parliament in Australia. She was elected to the South Australian Legislative Council in 1975 where she remained until 1997. In 1986 she became the President of the Legislative Council – the first woman to be a Presiding Officer of a House of Parliament in Australia. She held various Ministerial positions between 1989-1993, including first ever Minister for the Status of Women in Australia.