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- BACHELOR
GIRLS:
- Women
Pioneers in Australia’s academic world
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- The
University of Melbourne was the first Australian University to
admit women in 1874 producing Australia’s first female graduate
Bella Guerin who gained her Bachelor of Arts (Hons) in December
1883. The Universities of Sydney and Adelaide first allowed women
to study for degrees in 1881.
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- Australia’s
first female science graduates include Edith Dornwell (1885: University
of Adelaide), Fanny Hunt (1888: University of Sydney) and Agnes
Bennett (1894: University of Sydney) while Georgina Sweet, who
gained her doctorate in 1904 for her detailed study of the Australian
marsupial mole, became Australia’s foremost parasitologist
and the country’s first female acting professor during Professor
Baldwin Spencer’s absence in 1916-17.
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- Mona
McBurney was Australia’s first female music graduate (1896:
University of Melbourne) and Jean Kerr was the first woman in
Australia to graduate in accountancy (1946: University of Melbourne).
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- In
1907, Louisa Macdonald, first principal of the new Women’s
College at the University of Sydney was the first woman –
albeit defeated – to stand for the University Senate, a position
that Constance D’Arcy was to achieve in 1919.
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- By
the 1960's, for a woman to gain a place or to lecture at University
was not unusual but to become a Professor was unique. In
1965, Joyce Ackroyd was one of the only two female Professors
in Australia when she founded the Department of Japanese at Queensland
University. Australia’s oldest University – Sydney –
appointed their first female Professor, Leonie Kramer in 1968.
Fay Gale became
the first female professor of geography in Australia when appointed
at the University of Adelaide in 1978 while in 1995, Ann Curthoys
became the first female Professor of Australian history at the
Australian National University in Canberra when she replaced famed
historian Professor Manning Clark.
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- Roma
Mitchell became Australia’s first woman deputy chancellor
in 1972; and later first female chancellor in 1983. In
1987 Dianne Yerbury was appointed Australia’s first female
vice-chancellor at Macquarie University.
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- Some
first women in Australia's academic
world...
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 - University
of Melbourne Archives
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- (JULIA)
BELLA GUERIN (1858-1923)
- Australia’s
first woman graduate was awarded Bachelor of
Arts (Hons) from the University of Melbourne in
1883. She is pictured here in 1885 after
receiving her MA.
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 - Photograph
courtesy of the State Library of South
Australia
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- EDITH
HÜBBE (1859-1942)
- The
first woman to matriculate at the University of
Adelaide; she received her diploma (necessary
for degree level studies) in 1877 despite the
fact women were not admitted to the University
for another 4 years.
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 - State
History Centre, History Trust of
SA
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- EDITH
DORNWELL (1865-1943)
- The
first woman to graduate from the University of
Adelaide in 1885, she was this institution's and
one of Australia's earliest science
graduates.
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 - Salisbury
& District Historical Society/Rita M
Wilson
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- RUBY
DAVY (1883-1949)
- Australia’s
first female Doctor of Music, she received her
doctorate from the University of Adelaide in
1918 but was never offered a permanent senior
post at the University because she was a woman.
Instead she ran music schools in Prospect and
later Melbourne, founding the Society of Women
Musicians of Australia.
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 - The
Women’s College within the University of
Sydney
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- LOUISA
MACDONALD (1858-1949)
- The
first principal of the University of
Sydney’s Women’s College from
1892-1919, she was also the first woman to stand
for this University’s Senate in 1907 but
was defeated. Miss Macdonald is pictured here
(seated centre) with the Women's College's first
4 students (from L-R) Dorothy Harris, Madge
Whitfield (standing), Constance Harker and Lucy
Flavelle.
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 - University
of Melbourne Archives
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- GEORGINA
SWEET (1875-1946)
- Australia’s
first female acting Professor when appointed to
the University of Melbourne’s Biology
School in 1916, she became the first woman
associate-Professor in 1920 and the first woman
member of the University council in
1936.
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 - Courtesy
of Professor Trang
Thomas
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- TRANG
THOMAS (b1946)
- The
first Vietnamese Australian to receive a first class degree in
psychology in 1969, she later became the first female professor
at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and first woman
chair of the Victorian Multicultural Commission.
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