On this day, 12 June, in 1902 Australian women gained the right to vote in federal elections, following the passage of the Commonwealth Franchise Act 1902. The Act also gave women the right to stand as candidates in federal elections.
With its passage, Australia became the first country in the world to give most women both the right to vote and the right to run for parliament. New Zealand women had gained the right to vote in 1893, but not the right to stand as candidates. However, the Act also denied the right to vote to some groups, notably people of non-European backgrounds. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, both women and men, were excluded from the franchise, unless they were eligible to vote under state legislation in accordance with Section 41 of the Australian Constitution.
By June 1902, women were already eligible to vote in two states: South Australia (since 1894), and Western Australia (since 1899). The New South Wales (NSW) Legislative Assembly followed in August 1902, then the Tasmanian House of Assembly in 1903, Queensland in 1905, and Victoria in 1908.
The first federal election at which women in Australia were able to exercise their rights to vote and to stand as candidates was held on 16 December 1903.
Four women contested that election: Selina Anderson (later Siggins), who ran for the House of Representatives in NSW; and Senate candidates Vida Goldstein in Victoria (for whom the electoral division of Goldstein is named), and Nellie Martel and Mary Moore-Bentley (later Ling) in NSW.
They were the first women nominated for election to any national parliament in what was then the British Empire. All four women ran as independent candidates. None were elected.
It took another 41 years for the first women to be elected to the Australian Parliament. In 1943 Enid Lyons became the Member for Darwin (in Tasmania) in the House of Representatives, and Dorothy Tangney was elected to represent Western Australia in the Senate.
