Edith Cowan work passed on to new generation

24/08/06
Details of the legacy left by Australia's first female parliamentarian, Edith Cowan, were today shared with a fresh new generation of Western Australian women.
At a breakfast for female students and current and retired female parliamentarians,Women's Interests Minister Margaret Quirk used the 85th anniversary of Mrs Cowan's inaugural speech to the WA Parliament to highlight her political achievements.

Launching a CD-Rom of Mrs Cowan's parliamentary speeches and questions, Ms Quirk said it was essential to share the history of women's representation with a new generation of females.
"Mrs Cowan's election to Parliament in 1921 made Western Australia the pioneering State for women's rights in Australia," the Minister said.

"Edith Cowan's legacy to this State is considerable, not only as the first female politician in Australia but for the issues she took up in Parliament and prior to her political career.
"She put through private member's bills that legalised women's entry to the legal profession and allowed mothers to be placed on equal footing with fathers when their children died without making a will.
"Before she entered Parliament, she was instrumental in lobbying for the introduction of Children's Courts and in establishing day nurseries for the children of working mothers, the forerunner of modern child care centres.
"WA women today can be thankful to Edith Cowan for blazing a trail for women's causes and instituting a range of the rights and benefits they and their children now share."
Ms Quirk said the State had continued to break new ground in women's political representation, with the first female Premier in Carmen Lawrence and first female indigenous Member of Parliament, Kimberley MLA Carol Martin.
Students from 23 Perth schools attended this morning's breakfast at Parliament House.
An actor in period costume read excerpts from Mrs Cowan's speeches.
Minister's office - 9213 7000