First but not Last

Kamala Harris made history in 2020 as the first woman to become vice president of the USA.

Australian Women who went First.

Some of the Australian women who ‘went first’ are well known, some are not. We celebrate them in this brief roll call of recognition. They are simply some of the women in our own backyard who led the way. There are many others. They are listed alphabetically.

GRACE BENNY – First woman to hold political office
JULIE BISHOP – First woman foreign minister
ELIZABETH BLACKBURN – First woman Nobel Prize winner
QUENTIN BRYCE – First woman Governor General
LINDA BURNEY – First indigenous woman elected to Federal parliament
ITA BUTTROSE – First woman to launch a magazine for women
EDITH COWAN – First woman elected to Federal Parliament
STELLA MILES FRANKLIN – First famous woman novelist
JULIA GILLARD – First woman to become Prime Minister
DEBORAH LAWRIE – First woman commercial pilot
ELIZABETH MACARTHUR – First woman to build an agricultural empire
LOUISE MACK – First woman war correspondent
MARY MACKILLOP – Founder of Australia’s first order of nuns
OODGEROO NOONUCCAL – First indigenous Australian woman poet
GINA RHINEHART – First woman mining magnate
NANCY WAKE – First woman spy
JESSICA WATSON – Youngest person to sail solo non-stop around the world
SHEMARA WIKRAMANAYAKE – First woman to be highest-paid CEO
PENNY WONG – First woman openly-LGBTI Federal Parliamentarian