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- SISTERS
IN SUITS:
- Women
pioneers of the Australian public
service
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- Local,
state and federal government employees have
traditionally been male apart from perhaps
teachers, nurses and clerical assistants. By the
end of the late nineteenth century, a few women
were breaking the mould such as Margaret
Cuthbertson, Australia's first female Inspector
of Factories for the Victorian Public Service in
1894 and Blanche McNamara employed by the South
Australian government as the first female
Inspector of Schools.
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- The
first policewomen were employed in Australia in 1915. Lillian
Armfield, later one of the country's first plain-clothes female
detectives, was recruited as probationary special constable on
1 July 1915 in NSW. However, because her pay and conditions were
not in line with her male colleagues, it is Kate Boadicia Cocks
and Annie Ross, sworn-in on 1 December 1915 in Adelaide who are
officially Australia's first policewomen. Western Australia and
Victoria first recruited women in 1917 and 1924 respectively but
it took 10 years of government lobbying before Queensland appointed
their first two policewomen in 1931 and another 34 years before
female recruits could become fully sworn-in uniformed police officers.
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- Discrimination
against women in the public sector continued
until more recent times not only regarding pay
but also status. For example, it was not until
1966 that married women could be employed on a
permanent basis by the Commonwealth Public
Service.
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- The
1970's saw the government's heightening of the
political and public profile of women's affairs
and heralded the rise of the femocrat, a term
first used in Australia referring to the
feminist in a government position dealing with
women's policy. Changes to equal opportunity
legislation in the mid 1980's also affected many
areas of employment including the recruitment of
Australia's first professional women
firefighters, firstly in NSW (1985); WA and SA
(1987); Victoria (1988) and the Northern
Territory (1992).
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- Some
first women in Australia's public
service...
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 - With
permission of the Benedictine Community of New
Norcia
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- MARIA
ELLEN PANGIERAN also known as ELLEN CUPER
(1847-1877)
- Appointed
postmistress at the mission station at New
Norcia, Western Australia in 1874, she became
the first full-blooded Aboriginal to attain such
a position in Australia's public
service.
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 - The
History Trust of South
Australia
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- CATHERINE
HELEN SPENCE (1825-1919)
- The
first female member of a public board when
appointed to the East Adelaide School Board of
Advice in 1877, she was also the first woman in
Australia to participate in an official
commission when appointed to the Commission of
Enquiry into the Adelaide Hospital in
1895.
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 - By
permission of the National Library of
Australia
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- ANNABELLE
RANKIN (1908-1986)
- The
first woman to head an Australian diplomatic
mission was appointed Australian High
Commissioner to New Zealand in 1971.
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 - By
permission of the National Library of
Australia
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- ELIZABETH
REID (b1942)
- She
was appointed the first federal government adviser to the Prime
Minister on women's affairs in 1973, which ultimately developed
into the Office of the Status of Women.
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 - Courtesy
of Dr Pat O'Shane
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- PAT
O'SHANE (b1941)
- Australia's
first Aboriginal woman barrister, she was later appointed permanent
head of the NSW Department of Aboriginal Affairs in 1981, becoming
the first woman to head a state government department in Australia.
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 - By
permission of the National Library of
Australia
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- HELEN
WILLIAMS (b1945)
- She
was the first woman to head a Commonwealth government department
when appointed Secretary of the Department of Education in 1985.
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 - Courtesy
of Mary Beasley
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- MARY
BEASLEY (b1937)
- Australia's
first woman Ombudsman when appointed in South Australia in 1985,
she was also the first female Qantas board member from 1983-1985.
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- Some
first policewomen...
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 - The
South Australian Police Historical
Society
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- ANNIE
ROSS (1883-?)
- Along
with Kate Boadicia Cocks, she was the first
woman police officer in South Australia when
appointed in 1915 - the first policewomen in
Australia to have the same pay and conditions as
men.
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 - From
the collection of the Queensland Police
Museum
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- EILEEN
O'DONNELL (1896-1963)
- Appointed
in March 1931, she and Zara Dare were
Queensland's first policewomen although they did
not wear special uniforms or have power to
arrest.
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- Some
first women firefighters...
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 - Photo:
Ian Baker/The Herald & Weekly Times
Photographic Collection
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- JACKIE
SEGGER, MICHELLE FIELD, VIRGINIA
BELL
- Former
bookkeeper, trainee PE teacher and plumber,
these three women were Victoria's first female
professional firefighters when they qualified in
1988.
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