• Entry type: Person
  • Entry ID: AWE3973

Steele, Joyce Wilfred

(1909 – 1991)
  • Occupation Parliamentarian

Summary

A member of the Liberal and Country League, Joyce Steele was the first woman to be elected to the House of Assembly in the South Australian Parliament in 1959. She stood in the seat of Burnside. She was the first woman in the South Australian Parliament to achieve Cabinet rank as Minister for Education in the Hall Government from 1968-69, then moved to the Social Welfare Ministry in 1969. After major electoral reform in 1968, Steele stood for the new seat of Davenport at the 1970 state election and won convincingly. She retired before the 1973 election.

Archival resources

  • State Library of South Australia
    • Recordings of Joyce Steele [sound recording] Interviewer: Meg Denton
    • Interview with Joyce Steele [sound recording] Interviewer: Anne Geddes
    • Liberal Party, S.A. Division : SUMMARY RECORD

Published resources

  • Book
    • No ordinary lives: pioneering women in Australian politics, Jenkins, Cathy, 2008
    • Liberal women : Federation to 1949, Fitzherbert, Margaret, 2004
  • Resource

Related entries


  • Related Concepts
    • Women in Politics: Liberal Party of Australia