She was smaller than I imagined, for a woman who has accomplished so much. As Australia’s Ambassador for Women and Girls Natasha Stott Despoja stepped up to the podium at the Lowy Institute in Sydney’s city yesterday afternoon, I wondered where her talk, “Are we there yet?”, would take us. She knows more than most of us about the fight for gender equality. She has so much to talk about.
In 1995, at the age of 26, she was the youngest woman ever to be elected into the Australian federal parliament. She is also the longest serving member of the Australian Democrats party. She tabled the first legislation seeking paid parental leave in May 2002. She is a self-proclaimed feminist (increasingly rare, lately), a long-time advocate for women’s rights and the Chair of the Foundation to Prevent Violence against Women and their Children – an initiative from the Victorian and Commonwealth governments.
In December 2013, Stott Despoja was appointed the Australian Ambassador for Women and Girls by Australia’s Foreign Minister Julie Bishop. Now, after travelling overseas 45 times, to 31 different countries, she is stepping down from that role.
“The hardest thing about the last three years has been balancing family and professional life,” Stott Despoja, who has a daughter Cordelia and a son Conrad, told the audience. Part of the fight for equality, she says, involves reforms that facilitate women’s participation in both work and family life.
Part of the fight involves ending violence toward women and girls.
During her Ambassadorship, Stott Despoja has met with women in Vanuatu, who believe it’s okay for their husbands to hit them.
Top Comments
First ever woman in Australian Federal Parliament? Umm no... that was Enid Lyons and Dorothey Tangney, both elected in 1943.
That's embarrassing, considering parliament was federated in 1901....go Australia
I think it's meant to be 'youngest' woman in Parliament. I'm a big Natasha fan and admired the rest of this article very much, but it was a rather distracting error so early in the piece.
Yes! Here's a detailed read for those interested...
In August 1943, Australia finally elected women to Australia's federal parliament when Dorothy Tangney became Senator for Western Australia and Enid Lyons was elected to the House of Representatives.
Tangney, a 31-year-old school teacher, went on to become a veteran of the parliament, representing Western Australia for 25 years until 1968. Senator Dorothy Tangney was WA's representative at the 1958 National Conference on Equal Pay in Sydney. The decade closed with the establishment of the Combined Equal Pay Committee of Western Australia.
Lyons was also a teacher and the widow of former Prime Minister Joseph Lyons. She had previously stood, along with her mother Eliza Burnell, for the ALP in the 1925 Tasmanian election, when she was defeated by only 60 votes. In the 1943 Federal election, Lyons' own party, unable to refuse her decision to stand, endorsed two men in the seat as well. Lyons won narrowly to become the first woman elected to the Lower House. She was also the first woman in Federal Cabinet, as vice-president of the Executive Council in 1949.
Lyons worked hard in Parliament for women and children. She believed that men and women should be completely equal. In those days women often stayed at home. If they did go out to work, they earned less. Lyons brought in welfare payments for mothers and equal training allowances for women and men. She was made Dame Enid by the King in 1943 and Dame Enid of Australia in 1980.
I apologise for the error Gary, I did mean "youngest" and have adjusted the article accordingly. Thank you for your feedback, and for reading!