Australian women in politics Carol Porter, Get Elected, 1997,
silkscreen print. Courtesy of the State Library of Victoria:
pi001700. In 1902 Australia's new Commonwealth Parliament paved
the way for a new form of democracy by granting women the vote
and the right to be elected on a national basis. Leading the
world in rights and yet, the longest lag time for election Edith
Cowan, MLA. Courtesy of A Vote of Her Own While New Zealand had
granted women the right to vote in 1893, in 1902, Australia
granted women the right to vote and also to seek election. This
reflected the rights of women to vote and seek election in South
Australia and to vote in Western Australia, rights granted in
1895 and 1899 respectively. A leading suffragette, Edith Cowan,
was the first woman to be elected to an Australian parliament
when she won a seat in the Western Australian Legislative
Assembly in 1921. The victory was indeed groundbreaking, but the
next hurdle proved even more difficult as it took nearly 22
years for a woman to ent