The Australian Women's Register

First Assistant Secretary, Office of the Status of Women 1988-1993.

First Assistant Secretary, Office of the Status of Women 1993-1994.

First Assistant Secretary, Office of the Status of Women 1994-1997.

Pru Goward served as Executive Director of the Office of the Status of Women from 1997. In July 2001 she became the Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner, appointed for a term of five years. In 2004 she was also appointed Commissioner Responsible for Age Discrimination.

In 2004 she was nominated by The Australian as one of the forty most influential Australians and by the Australian Financial Review as one of the country’s top cultural and industrial relations influencers. Her speeches have been reproduced in published collections and in 2001 she was awarded a Centenary Medal for her services to journalism and women’s rights.

In 2007 she stood successfully as a candidate for the Liberal Party of Australia in the seat of Goulburn in the Legislative Assembly at the New South Wales state election, which was held on 24 March. She was re-elected in 2011 and again in 2015 and is a minister in the Liberal state government.

National Convenor of WEL from 1984 until early 1985.

Elizabeth Beveridge was a Foundation member and President of the Country Women’s Association (CWA) in Tasmania.

Kate Deakin (1850-1937) was Alfred Deakin’s sister and close companion. She was tutor to his two eldest children and taught music at various times during her life.

Following the birth of her children, Beryl Beaurepaire became involved with charity work and the women’s organisations of the Liberal Party. She summarises her liberal feminist views as follows: ‘If you’re a feminist you believe in equal opportunities and rights for women, but you also believe that women accept equal responsibilities.’ (As cited by Emma Grahame in Australian Feminism: A Companion, OUP, 1998)

Dame Beryl passed away at her home in Mt Eliza, Victoria, on 24 October 2018.

Dame Elisabeth Murdoch was widely regarded as the ‘queen of Australia’s philanthropic community’. She was Patron of the Murdoch Children’s Research Institute in Melbourne, Victoria and supported 110 charitable organisations annually.

Pat Giles commenced her working life as a nurse. After completing a Bachelor of Arts as a mature age student, she was an Organiser with the Hospital Employees Union of Western Australia from 1974 until 1981. In that year Giles was elected as an Australian Labor Party (ALP) Senator for Western Australia, and held the position for twelve years. During this time she was directly involved in the United Nations Decade for Women meetings, leading the government delegation to Nairobi in 1985.

Giles was a founding member and inaugural convenor of the Women’s Electoral Lobby (WEL) WA in 1973 and was the first woman on the executive of the West Australian Trades and Labour Council. She was a member, later Chairperson, of the first Australian Council of Trade Unions Women’s Committee. In 2004 Giles completed her third and final term as President of the International Alliance of Women. In 2010, she was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia.

On 11 June 2001, Haines became a Member of the Order of Australia ‘for service to the Australian Parliament and to politics, particularly as Parliamentary Leader of the Australian Democrats, and to the community.’

Haines was appointed to the Senate to fill a casual vacancy in South Australia in 1977. In 1986 she became the first woman to lead an Australian political party when she was elected leader of the Australian Democrats.

(Source: http://www.itsanhonour.gov.au/honours_list/resultDetail.cfm?awardsID=709341 accessed 17/04/2002 and Emma Grahame in Australian Feminism: A Companion.)

Susan Hawthorne is a writer, publisher and circus performer.

With Renate Klein she established Spinifex Press, specialising in feminist publications, in the early 1990s.

Her biography on CyberFeminism states that ‘she has degrees in Philosophy and Ancient Greek Language and has taught in the fields of Philosophy, Education, Literature and Women’s Studies.’

Described as a radical feminist, Klein was awarded a Master of Science degree in Biology from The University of Zurich; a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) degree from the University of California, Berkeley; and a Doctor of Philosophy degree from London University.

A senior lecturer in Women’s Studies, she is currently Associate Professor at Deakin University’s School of Social and International Studies in Burwood, Melbourne.

With Susan Hawthorne she established Spinifex Press, specialising in feminist publications, in the early 1990s.

Rosemary Calder served as First Assistant Secretary (Head) of the Office of the Status of Women from 2000-2003.

As a member of the Monash University alumni, she was honoured by the University in 2002 with a Doctor of Laws (honoris causa). She was appointed Adjunct Professor in the School of Political and Social Inquiry in the Faculty of Arts from 2003.

Head of Office of the Status of Women 1986-1988

Christine Campbell was the Member for Pascoe Vale representing the Australian Labor Party in the Legislative Assembly of the Victorian Parliament from 1996. She was re-elected at the elections held in 1999, 2002, 2006 and 2010. She has held the ministerial portfolios of Community Services, Senior Victorians and Consumer Affairs. She retired from parliament in November 2014.

On 25 February 2003, Monica Gould was elected 18th President of the Legislative Council of Victoria. She was the first female to hold this position and retained it until November 2006.

In 1990 Joan Kirner was elected the first woman Premier for the State of Victoria. She held the position for two years but her legacy will extend for much longer. As the Premier of Victoria, Daniel Andrews said in a statement after her death:

“Through her decades of advocacy for gender equality, [Joan Kirner] fundamentally changed [The Victorian ALP] and our society. In the process, she raised a generation of Victorian Labor women – one of whom became Prime Minister…
She fought every day for fairness. Our state is stronger for her service and our lives are greater for her friendship. She was our first female Premier and because of her work, she won’t be the last.”

A member of the Australian Labor Party, Bronwyn Pike entered the Victorian Parliament in 1999 as the Member for Melbourne in the Legislative Assembly. Her ministerial portfolios included Community Services and Housing. After the 2002 election she became Minister for Health. She was re-elected in 2006 at the state election, held on 25 November, and in August 2007 was appointed Minister for Education in the Brumby Government on the retirement of Steve Bracks as Premier.
She was re-elected in 2010, but the Labor Government was defeated. She resigned from parliament on 7 May 2012.

Prior to entering Parliament, she worked as a secondary school teacher, Director of Justice and Social Responsibility, Executive Officer and Union Official.

A council member of the Invergowrie Foundation, Ruth Tideman was Headmistress of Lauriston Girls’ School, Armadale (Victoria) from 1983 to 2000.

On 26 January 2001 Ruth Tideman was made a Member of the Order of Australia (AM) for service to education as the Headmistress of Lauriston Girls’ School and for providing advancement opportunities for teachers and pupils through the Invergowrie Foundation.

In 1999 Marsha Thomson was elected Member of the Legislative Council (ALP) for Melbourne North Province at the Victorian state election. She served as the Minister for Information and Communication Technology and Small Business from 2002 until 2006. In 2006 she moved from the Legislative Council to be elected Member of the Legislative Assembly for Footscray. She held the position of Parliamentary Secretary, Industry and Trade from August 2007 until December 2010. She was re-elected in 2010 but the Labor Government was voted out of office. She was again re-elected in November 2014, when the Labor Party returned to power.

She is married to Federal Parliamentarian, the Hon. Kelvin Thomson MP, and is the mother of two children, Ben and Naomi.

Ward, Headmistress of Presbyterian Ladies’ College, Burwood (Victoria) since 1998, is a member of the Invergowrie Foundation.

Vivian Bullwinkel was the sole survivor of the 1942 Banka Island massacre. Post-war, she was Matron of Melbourne’s Fairfield Hospital.

Catherine Martin won two Oscars for costume design and art direction (Moulin Rouge) at the 2002 Academy Awards. At the 2001 Australian Film Institute (AFI) Awards she was the winner of the ‘GMD AFI Award for Best Production Design’ and joint winner of ‘The Kirketon AFI Award for Best Costume Design.’

Nancy Wake, whom the Gestapo code-named “the White Mouse” was the Allies’ most decorated servicewoman of World War II. The youngest of six children, Nancy Wake came to Australia with her parents when she was 20 months old. In the early 1930s she went first to England and then Paris as a freelance journalist and there met and married Henri Fiocca, a wealthy French industrialist. When the French government surrendered, after the German Army invaded in May 1940, Nancy Wake joined the French Resistance working as a courier and saboteur. For these ‘special operations in France’ Wake was awarded the George Medal (17 July 1945). Wake worked for the Intelligence Department at the British Air Ministry, after the war. She married John Forward, in 1957, before returning to Australia to live. In December 2001, Nancy Wake left Port Macquarie, New South Wales to live in Europe.

On 22 February 2004 Nancy Wake was appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia. The award recognises the significant contribution and commitment of Nancy Wake, stemming from her outstanding actions in wartime, in encouraging community appreciation and understanding of the past sacrifices made by Australian men and women in times of conflict, and to a lasting legacy of peace.

Nancy Wake moved to London to live in 2001. She died there, in Kingston Hospital on 7 August 2011.

Chloe Hooper attended Lauriston Girls’ School before commencing a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Melbourne. She studied creative writing at New York’s Columbia University under a Fulbright Scholarship.

Hooper’s first novel A Child’s Book of True Crime was launched at the 2002 Adelaide Writers’ Week.

In 1895 Augusta Zadow was appointed the first female Factory Inspector in South Australia.