Women in the South Australian Legislative Council


There have been 21 women in the South Australian Legislative Council since its establishment in 1840. Women have had the right to vote and stand as candidates since 1894.
In 1895, South Australian women became the first state in Australia, and some of the first in the world, to be given the right to vote and stand for election to Parliament. The following year at the 1896 election, the first women in Australia voted. Ironically, South Australia was the last state to elect a female representative, at the 1959 election, when Jessie Cooper and Joyce Steele were elected to the Parliament of South Australia for the Liberal and Country League.
The first woman candidate for Legislative Council honours was Patience Howard, née Hawker, who stood for the Labor Party for Central No.2 at the 1953 election. She and her running mate Mr. Leslie McLean Wright were unsuccessful in this Liberal stronghold. Mrs. Howard had previously sat for the equally unwinnable Assembly seat of Burnside at the 1946 by-election
The first successful female candidate for the Legislative Council was Cooper. In 1975 she was joined by Labor's first female MLC, Anne Levy, who would later become the first and only female President of the South Australian Legislative Council. Sandra Kanck was the first female Democrat in 1993, and Ann Bressington was the first female independent in 2006.

List of women in the South Australian Legislative Council

Names in bold indicate women who have been appointed as Ministers and Parliamentary Secretaries during their time in Parliament. Names in italics indicate entry into Parliament through a by-election or by appointment and * symbolises members that have sat as members in both the Legislative Council and the Legislative Assembly.

Timeline


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PlotArea = top:10 bottom:80 right:200 left:20
AlignBars = early
DateFormat = yyyy
Period = from:1955 till:2025
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal
ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:5 start:1955
Colors =
id:LP value:blue legend: Liberal & Country League/Liberal Party of Australia
id:AL value:red legend: Australian Labor Party
id:AD value:orange legend: Australian Democrats
id:AG value:brightgreen legend: Australian Greens
id:DF value:purple legend: Dignity for Disability/Dignity Party
id:NX value:redorange legend: Nick Xenophon's SA-BEST
id:ID value:gray legend: Independent
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BarData =
barset:MLCs
PlotData=
width:5 align:left fontsize:S shift: anchor:till
barset:MLCs
from:1959 till:1979 color:LP text:"Jessie Cooper "
from:1975 till:1997 color:AL text:"Anne Levy "
from:1979 till:1995 color:AL text:"Barbara Wiese "
from:1982 till:2003 color:LP text:"Diana Laidlaw "
from:1985 till:2002 color:AL text:"Carolyn Pickles "
from:1990 till:1997 color:LP text:"Bernice Pfitzner "
from:1993 till:2010 color:LP text:"Caroline Schaefer "
from:1993 till:2009 color:AD text:"Sandra Kanck "
from:1997 till:2014 color:AL text:"Carmel Zollo "
from:2002 till:2018 color:AL text:"Gail Gago "
from:2003 till:2006 color:AD text:"Kate Reynolds "
from:2003 till:2021 color:LP text:"Michelle Lensink "
from:2006 till:2014 color:ID text:"Ann Bressington "
from:2010 till:2021 color:AG text:"Tammy Franks "
from:2010 till:2021 color:LP text:"Jing Lee "
from:2010 till:2018 color:DF text:"Kelly Vincent "
from:2018 till:2021 color:NX text:"Connie Bonaros "
from:2018 till:2021 color:AL text:"Emily Bourke "
from:2018 till:2021 color:AL text:"Irene Pnevmatikos "
from:2018 till:2021 color:AL text:"Clare Scriven "
from:2020 till:2021 color:LP text:"Nicola Centofanti "
barset:skip