Dorothy Tangney and Enid Lyons Sculpture

Photo credit - Commonwealth of Australia 2021

Eighty years after Dame Dorothy Tangney and Dame Enid Lyons made history as the first women elected to the Australian Parliament, on March 8th, 2023, they made history again with the unveiling of their statues near Old Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, the first statues of women in the parliamentary zone in Canberra. The sculptures stand close to the Women’s Suffrage Commemorative Fountain, commemorating women’s achievements in the Federal Parliament since gaining the right to vote in 1902.

Sally Barnes, CEO of the National Capital Authority, led this project, commissioning Melbourne-based sculptress Lis Johnson to sculpt the statues. Johnson depicted Tangney and Lyons as they appeared in an iconic photo on their first day in office on September 24th, 1943. Kristy McBain, the Minister for Territories and the first female elected to the seat of Eden-Monaro unveiled the statues in a special ceremony attended by the Lyons and Tangney families.

Dorothy Tangney (1907-1985) won the 1943 federal election, becoming the first Australian female senator. She served as Western Australia representative from the Australian Labor Party till 1968, taking part in several committees while focusing on education, social policy, public health, and women’s topics.

In 1968, Tangney became the first woman born in Western Australia to be appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE).

Enid Lyons (1897-1981) was the first elected woman to the House of Representatives and the first woman to serve in the federal cabinet. Before she ran for office, Lyons was the right hand of her husband, Joseph Lyons, when he served as prime minister of Australia (1932-1939) and premier of Tasmania (1923-1928) and raised their 11 children.

When he suddenly passed away in 1939, Lyons stepped down from public life for a while and then, in 1943, decided to run for the seat of Darwin in Tasmania at the House of Representatives as the United Australia Party candidate. While in office, Lyons promoted social welfare, free medical treatment for pensioners schemes, and child endowment. Due to poor health, she retired from parliament in 1951.

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