Dorothy Tangney

Dame Dorothy Margaret Tangney DBE (13 March 1907 – 3 June 1985) was an Australian politician.

Tangney was born on 13 March 1907 in North Perth, Western Australia.

As an adult she claimed to have been born in 1911.

She was the third of nine children born to Ellen (née Shanahan) and Eugene Tangney; her father was born in Ireland and her mother was of Irish descent.

Her paternal grandfather Owen Shanahan assisted in Irish republican John Boyle O'Reilly's escape from Western Australia.

Tangney spent her early years in country Western Australia where her father was a locomotive driver and timber worker.

The family lived in the Murchison for a period and later in Holyoake and Marrinup.

When she was eight, her father found work in the port city of Fremantle where she attended St Joseph's Convent School.

She won a scholarship to attend St Joseph's College, selling raffle tickets to raise money for her school uniform.

Tangney passed her leaving certificate at the age of 15 and began training as a schoolteacher, combining her teaching work with part-time study at the University of Western Australia.

She graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1927 and later completed a postgraduate diploma in education in 1932.

After several years in Fremantle, Tangney began teaching at Claremont Central School in 1929.

She was involved in the Teachers' Union and a vice-president of the state Parents' and Citizens' Association.

She helped establish the University Labor Club, later serving as its president, and was also the founding president of the Fremantle Young People's Ideal Club in 1929, which organised activities for the children of the unemployed and was absorbed into the Western Australian Young Labor League.

She attended the organisation's federal conference in Sydney in 1933 and was a delegate to the Pan-Pacific Conference in Wellington, New Zealand, in 1939.

Tangney and her mother were active members of the Claremont branch of the Australian Labor Party (ALP).

She was eventually elected to the Western Australian Labor Women's Organisation Committee, and then to the party's state executive.

Tangney stood for the seat of Nedlands at the 1936 and 1939 Western Australian state elections, losing to her Nationalist opponent Norbert Keenan on both occasions.

She won preselection for the ALP Senate ticket at the 1940 federal election, but was not elected.

She was a member of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and served as a Senator for Western Australia from 1943 to 1968.

She was the first woman elected to the Senate and one of the first two women elected to federal parliament, along with Enid Lyons.

Tangney was born in Perth to a working-class family of Irish descent.

She spent her early years in country Western Australia and later in Fremantle.

She trained as a schoolteacher and attended the University of Western Australia, where she was president of the University Labor Club.

She was active in the Teachers' Union and community organisations.

Tangney was elected to the Senate at the 1943 federal election, after several previous candidacies at state and federal level.

Tangney was elected to the Senate at the 1943 federal election to fill a casual vacancy caused by the death of Bertie Johnston.

She was the first woman elected to the Senate, with her term beginning immediately upon her election; Enid Lyons simultaneously became the first woman elected to the House of Representatives.

Tangney was sworn in six minutes before Lyons.

Tangney was re-elected at the 1946, 1951, 1955 and 1961 federal elections, on each occasion being placed first on the ALP's ticket in Western Australia.

She was also the first woman to preside over the Senate, serving as a temporary chairman of committees in the early 1960s.

In the Senate, Tangney "actively promoted the needs and interests of women, and provided vital conduits for women who approached them, either singly or in organised groups, to raise their concerns".

She supported increased federal involvement in social services, including the expansion of child endowment, pensions for widow's and deserted wives, increased public housing and the introduction of a national health system with medical and hospital benefits.

She was re-elected on four further occasions before her defeat in 1967, serving nearly 25 years in the Senate.

In the Senate, Tangney served on numerous committees and was particularly interested in education and social policy.

She was her party's only female parliamentarian throughout her service.

She was defeated at the 1967 election after being relegated to third place on the ticket.

Her final term ended on 30 June 1968, after just under 25 years in the Senate.

During this time she was the ALP's only female parliamentarian.

Tangney's period of service was a record for parliamentary service by woman until surpassed by Kathy Sullivan in 1999 and a record for female senators until surpassed by Marise Payne in 2022.