Trailblazing Women

The firsts

Fourteen women who entered rooms that had never held them.

This is the collection’s second layer of navigation: not by colour, and not by party, but by the institutional threshold each woman crossed.

  1. 1975

    First Female Cabinet Minister with a Major Portfolio

    Dame Margaret Guilfoyle — Minister for Finance

    Forest Blue
  2. 1986

    First Female Speaker of the House of Representatives

    Joan Child

    Undersea Green
  3. 1986

    First Female Leader of an Australian Political Party

    Janine Haines — Australian Democrats

    Tundra Pink
  4. 1990

    First Female Premier of an Australian State

    Carmen Lawrence — Western Australia

    Galaxy Pink
  5. 1997

    First Woman to Co-Found and Lead Her Own Political Party into Parliament

    Pauline Hanson — One Nation

    Transparent Red Oxide
  6. 2001

    First woman to lead an established federal parliamentary party into a federal election campaign

    Natasha Stott Despoja — Australian Democrats

    Blue Apatite Genuine
  7. 2002

    First Openly Gay Woman and First Female Asian-Australian Elected to Federal Parliament

    Penny Wong

    Moonglow
  8. 2007

    First Female Deputy Leader of a Major Political Party

    Julie Bishop — later First Female Foreign Minister

    Sodalite Genuine
  9. 2008

    First Female Governor-General of Australia

    Quentin Bryce

    Shadow Violet
  10. 2010

    First Female Prime Minister

    Julia Gillard

    Bloodstone Genuine
  11. 2013

    First Indigenous Woman Elected to Federal Parliament

    Nova Peris — also First Indigenous Female Senator

    Transparent Brown Oxide
  12. 2014

    First Female ADF Veteran Elected to Federal Parliament

    Jacqui Lambie

    Jane’s Grey
  13. 1987–2016

    Longest-Serving Female Member of the Australian Parliament

    Bronwyn Bishop — 28 years; also first woman Minister for Defence Industry, Science and Personnel

    Rare Green Earth
  14. 1997–2023

    Longest-Serving Female Senator

    Marise Payne — also First Female Minister for Defence

    Piemontite Genuine