• Entry type: Person
  • Entry ID: AWE0243

Tangney, Dorothy Margaret

  • Dame, DBE, BA, DipEd.
(1907 – 1985)
  • Born 13 March, 1907, North Perth Western Australia Australia
  • Died 3 June, 1985, Wembley Western Australia Australia
  • 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.

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Events

  • 2001

    Inducted into the Victorian Honour Roll of Women

Archival resources

  • National Library of Australia, Manuscript Collection
    • Papers of Dorothy Margaret Tangney, 1938-1986 [manuscript]
    • Parliamentarians' questionnaires, 1982-1983 [manuscript]
  • State Library of Western Australia
    • Dame Dorothy Tangney papers

Published resources

Related entries


  • Membership
    • Lyceum Club (Melbourne) (1912 - )
  • Colleague
    • Harken, Nennie (1922 - 2014)
  • Related Concepts
    • Women in Politics
    • Women in Politics: Australian Labor Party
    • Women's Non-party Political Organisations