Women in the Victorian Legislative Council


There have been 58 women in the Victorian Legislative Council since its establishment in 1856. Women have had the right to vote in Victoria, Australia since 1908 and the right to stand as a candidate for the Victorian Legislative Council since 1923. As at March 2020, there were 18 women in the 40 member Legislative Council.
The first successful female candidates for the Legislative Council were Gracia Baylor and Joan Coxsedge of the Liberal and Labor parties respectively, who were elected in 1979. Since then there have continuously been female members in the Council. The first National Party female member was Jeanette Powell, elected in 1996.

List of women in the Victorian Legislative Council

Names in bold indicate women who have been appointed as Ministers and Parliamentary Secretaries during their time in the Legislative Council. 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


ImageSize = width:1000 height:auto barincrement:12
PlotArea = top:10 bottom:80 right:150 left:20
AlignBars = early
DateFormat = yyyy
Period = from:1975 till:2025
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal
ScaleMajor = unit:year increment:5 start:1975
Colors =
id:LP value:blue legend: Liberal Party of Australia
id:AL value:red legend: Australian Labor Party
id:NP value:teal legend: National Party of Australia
id:AG value:brightgreen legend: Australian Greens
id:SX value:yellow legend: Australian Sex Party/Reason Party
id:DL value:orange legend: Democratic Labour Party
id:AC value:skyblue legend: Australian Conservatives
id:JP value:darkblue legend: Derryn Hinch's Justice Party
id:ID value:gray legend: Independent
Legend = columns:3 left:150 top:50 columnwidth:200
BarData =
barset:MLCs
bar:CarlingJenkins
barset:MLCs2
bar:Cumming
barset:MLCs3
PlotData=
width:5 align:left fontsize:S shift: anchor:till
barset:MLCs
from:1979 till:1985 color:LP text:"Gracia Baylor "
from:1979 till:1992 color:AL text:"Joan Coxsedge "
from:1982 till:1999 color:AL text:"Caroline Hogg "
from:1982 till:1988 color:AL text:"Judith Dixon "
from:1982 till:1988 color:AL text:"Joan Kirner "
from:1985 till:1992 color:AL text:"Maureen Lyster "
from:1985 till:1999 color:AL text:"Jean McLean "
from:1985 till:1999 color:LP text:"Rosemary Varty "
from:1987 till:1992 color:LP text:"Marie Tehan "
from:1988 till:1996 color:AL text:"Licia Kokocinski "
from:1992 till:1999 color:LP text:"Louise Asher "
from:1992 till:1999 color:LP text:"Sue Wilding "
from:1993 till:2006 color:AL text:"Monica Gould "
from:1996 till:2002 color:LP text:"Maree Luckins "
from:1996 till:2002 color:NP text:"Jeanette Powell "
from:1996 till:2002 color:LP text:"Wendy Smith "
from:1999 till:2014 color:AL text:"Candy Broad "
from:1999 till:2006 color:AL text:"Elaine Carbines "
from:1999 till:2014 color:LP text:"Andrea Coote "
from:1999 till:2014 color:AL text:"Kaye Darveniza "
from:1999 till:2006 color:AL text:"Dianne Hadden "
from:1999 till:2020 color:AL text:"Jenny Mikakos "
from:1999 till:2006 color:AL text:"Glenyys Romanes "
from:1999 till:2006 color:AL text:"Marsha Thomson "
from:2002 till:2006 color:AL text:"Lidia Argondizzo "
from:2002 till:2006 color:AL text:"Helen Buckingham "
from:2002 till:2006 color:AL text:"Carolyn Hirsh "
from:2002 till:2020 color:LP text:"Wendy Lovell "
from:2006 till:2018 color:AG text:"Colleen Hartland "
from:2006 till:2014 color:LP text:"Jan Kronberg "
from:2006 till:2018 color:AG text:"Sue Pennicuik "
from:2006 till:2013 color:LP text:"Donna Petrovich "
from:2006 till:2018 color:LP text:"Inga Peulich "
from:2006 till:2020 color:AL text:"Jaala Pulford "
from:2006 till:2020 color:AL text:"Gayle Tierney "
from:2009 till:2010 color:AL text:"Jennifer Huppert "
from:2010 till:2020 color:LP text:"Georgie Crozier "
from:2013 till:2014 color:LP text:"Amanda Millar "
from:2014 till:2014 color:AL text:"Marg Lewis "
bar:CarlingJenkins
from:2014 till:2016 color:DL text:"
from:2016 till:2017 color:AC text:"
from:2017 till:2018 color:ID text:"Rachel Carling-Jenkins "
barset:MLCs2
from:2014 till:2018 color:AG text:"Samantha Dunn "
from:2014 till:2018 color:LP text:"Margaret Fitzherbert "
from:2014 till:2020 color:SX text:"Fiona Patten "
from:2014 till:2020 color:AL text:"Harriet Shing "
from:2014 till:2018 color:AG text:"Nina Springle "
from:2014 till:2020 color:AL text:"Jaclyn Symes "
from:2014 till:2019 color:LP text:"Mary Wooldridge "
from:2015 till:2020 color:NP text:"Melina Bath "
from:2017 till:2020 color:AG text:"Samantha Ratnam "
from:2018 till:2018 color:AG text:"Huong Truong "
bar:Cumming
from:2018 till:2019 color:JP text:"
from:2019 till:2020 color:ID text:"Catherine Cumming "
barset:MLCs3
from:2018 till:2020 color:AL text:"Jane Garrett "
from:2018 till:2020 color:JP text:"Tania Maxwell "
from:2018 till:2020 color:LP text:"Bev McArthur "
from:2018 till:2020 color:AL text:"Ingrid Stitt "
from:2018 till:2020 color:AL text:"Nina Taylor "
from:2018 till:2020 color:AL text:"Sonja Terpstra "
from:2018 till:2020 color:AL text:"Kaushaliya Vaghela "
barset:skip

Proportion of women in the Council

Numbers and proportions are as they were directly after the beginning of Council terms and do not take into account deaths, resignations, appointments, defections or other changes in membership.