Dorothy Tangney

Dame Dorothy Tangney DBE
Senator for Western Australia
In office 21 August 1943 – 30 June 1968
Personal details
Born	(1911-03-13)13 March 1911
Died	1 June 1985(1985-06-01) (aged 74)
Nationality	Australian
Political party	Australian Labor Party

Dame Dorothy Margaret Tangney DBE (13 March 1911 – 1 June 1985) was an Australian politician and the first woman member of the Australian Senate.

Dorothy Tangney started her career as a school teacher in Perth, Western Australia. In the Australian federal election, 1940 she stood as a federal Senate candidate for the Australian Labor Party in Western Australia, and again in the Australian federal election, 1943, when she was the first woman elected to the Senate. She served in the Senate from 21 August 1943 to 30 June 1968. Her 25 years of service made her the longest-serving woman parliamentarian. Her record has since been surpassed by Kathy Sullivan. She was the last surviving member of the 1944-1947 Senate.

Senator Tangney was committed to an agenda of social reform, which included extending federal powers over social services and instituting Commonwealth assistance in education. Senate committees on which Senator Tangney served included the Standing Committee on Regulations and Ordinances and the Select Committee on the Development of Canberra, supporting the development of the Australian National University, and the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Social Security.

National Honourship

In 1968 Tangney was the first woman born in Western Australia to be appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire. Her award was for her services to the Australian Parliament.

Legacies

• In 1974 the federal electoral division of Tangney in Western Australia was named in her honour.
• In 1999 a street in Canberra, formerly known as Administration Place, was changed to Dorothy Tangney Place.
• In 1993 she and Dame Enid Lyons, the first female member of the Australian House of Representatives, appeared on an Australia Post postage stamp.
• In 2013 the Norfolk Hotel in Fremantle, Western Australia was decorated with a wall sculpture of Tangney. It was carved by the Portuguese artist VHILS (aka Alexander Farto) and his assistants.

Sources

• Senate Brief No 3, Women in the Senate, Parliament of Australia, Department of the Senate. 1999

External links

• Listen to a recorded version of Dorothy Tangney's maiden speech in Parliament and read more about it on australianscreen online. This recording was added to the National Film and Sound Archive's Sounds of Australia registry in 2011.