Women Senators Since 1901

The table on this page displays the complete list of 123 female senators since 1901.

• No women were elected to the Senate between 1901 and 1943. Dorothy Tangney was the first, elected in August 1943.
• Until 1980, just thirteen women had sat in the Senate. The increase in female participation accelerated in the 1980s, with seventeen women taking up Senate seats in that decade.
• Since 1990, ninety-three women have entered the Senate. They constitute 75.60% of all women senators since 1901.

The forty-two women senators currently serving constitute a majority – 55.26% – of the current Senate’s membership of 76. There are seventeen from the ALP, ten from the Liberal Party, seven from the Greens, four from The Nationals, one from One Nation, and one from the Jacqui Lambie Network. The former Green, Lidia Thorpe, now sits as an independent, as does Tammy Tyrell, the former Lambie Network senator.

The 42 women senators constitute 34.14% of the 123 women who have served in the Senate since Federation.

CHANGES DURING THE 47th PARLIAMENT 2022-2025

May 1, 2024: The Victorian Parliament appointed the Greens member Steph Hodgins-May to a casual vacancy created by the resignation of Senator Janet Rice on April 19, 2024.

Feb 29, 2024: The Victorian Labor Senator Linda White died. A casual vacancy replacement has not yet been chosen.

May 31, 2023: The NSW Parliament chose the Liberal member Maria Kovacic to fill a casual vacancy created by the death of Senator Jim Molan on January 16, 2023.

The following table shows the full list of current women senators. Their state of origin and first date of election is shown next to their names.

LONGEST-SERVING WOMEN SENATORS

Until 2022, the longest-serving woman in the Senate was the very first woman senator, Dame Dorothy Tangney, from Western Australia, who served for 24 years, 10 months and 9 days between 1943 and 1968.

On February 9, 2022, Tangney’s term was overtaken by Senator Marise Payne, the then Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for Women in the Morrison coalition government. Payne retired on September 30, 2023 as the longest-serving female senator, having served 26 years, 5 months, and 21 days.

Of other contemporary senators, Amanda Vanstone has the longest service.

1. Marise Payne (Lib-NSW) – 1997-2023 – 26 years, 5 months, 21 days
2. Dame Dorothy Tangney (ALP-WA) – 1943-1968 – 24 years, 10 months, 9 days
3. Dame Annabelle Rankin (Lib-Qld) – 1947-1971 – 23 years, 10 months, 23 days
4. Amanda Vanstone (Lib-SA) – 1984-2007 – 22 years, 4 months, 25 days
5. Dame Ivy Wedgwood (Lib-Vic) – 1950-1971 – 21 years, 4 months, 8 days

DEATHS

The most recent deaths of women senators have been:

• February 29, 2024: Linda White (ALP-Vic), 63-64
• March 10, 2022: Kimberley Kitching (ALP-Vic), 52
• November 11, 2020: Margaret Guilfoyle (Lib-Vic), 94
• September 27, 2020: Susan Ryan (ALP-ACT), 77
• April 01, 2018: Jocelyn Newman (Lib-Tas), 80
• December 20, 2017: Lady Florence Bjelke-Petersen (Nat-Qld), 97.
• November 20, 2017: Jean Hearn (ALP-Tas), 96.
• August 09, 2017: Patricia Giles (ALP-WA), 88.
• June 18, 2017: Shirley Walters (Lib-Tas), 91.

As of March 2024, twenty-two former women senators have died. This is 18.03% of the total number.

• Women Members of the House of Representatives Since 1901
• Women in the 45th Parliament (2016)

The table below lists each woman by the date she first took up her seat. Members elected at double dissolutions who had their terms backdated are listed according to their date of election. The table also shows details of senators who also served in the House of Representatives or other state or territory parliaments.

CHANGES DURING THE 46th PARLIAMENT 2019-2022

March 10, 2022: Kimberley Kitching, a Labor senator from Victoria, first appointed in October 2016, died, of a heart attack, aged 52.

September 21, 2021: Karen Grogan, a former official of the United Workers Union, and convenor of the Left faction of the South Australian ALP, was appointed by a joint sitting of the South Australian parliament to fill the casual vacancy caused by the death of Senator Alex Gallacher on August 29, 2021.

September 14, 2021: Rachel Siewert, an Australian Greens senator from Western Australia since 2005, resigned on September 6, 2021. At a joint sitting of the Western Australian parliament on September 14, her casual vacancy was filled by Dorinda Cox. Cox is the first indigenous female senator from Western Australia. Cox’s appointment does not change the composition of the Senate, which continues to have 39 women and 39 men.

September 4, 2020: Lidia Thorpe, a former Greens member of the Victorian Legislative Assembly, was appointed to a casual vacancy to replace Richard Di Natale, who resigned on August 26, 2020. Her appointment means there are now 39 women in the Senate, as against 37 men. This is the first time in the Senate’s history that a majority of members have been women. Thorpe is the 111th female senator since 1901.

September 11, 2019: Sarah Henderson, who was defeated in the House of Representatives division of Corangamite at the 2019 election, was appointed to a casual vacancy to replace Mitch Fifield, who resigned to become Australian ambassador to the United Nations. Her appointment means exactly half – 38 – of the senators are women. The total number of women senators since 1901 is now 110.

2019 FEDERAL ELECTION

Eight new women senators took office on May 18, 2019 or July 1, 2019: ALP 3, Liberal/LNP 3, Nationals 2.

The new senators were:
– ALP: Jess Walsh (Vic), Nita Green (Qld) and Marielle Smith (SA)
– LIB/LNP: Hollie Hughes (NSW), Susan McDonald (Qld) and Claire Chandler (Tas)
– NATIONALS: Perin Davey (NSW), Sam McMahon (NT)

Two female former senators returned: Jacqui Lambie (Tas-JLN) and Katy Gallagher (ACT-ALP).

Three women left the Senate on June 30. Claire Moore (Qld-ALP) retired at the election. Lisa Singh (Tas-ALP), and Lucy Gichuhi (SA-Lib) were defeated.

Following the election, there were 37 women senators – ALP 16, Lib/LNP 11, Nationals 3, Greens 5, Lambie 1, One Nation 1. They comprised 48.68% of the Senate’s 76 members. In September 2019, the appointment of Sarah Henderson delivered parity, with 38 male and 38 female senators.

Following the election, the total number of women senators since 1901 rose to 109. Henderson’s appointment was the 110th and Lidia Thorpe’s appointment in 2020 was the 111th.

CHANGES IN THE 45th PARLIAMENT 2016-2019

Seven women elected at the 2016 federal election have left the Senate. Five (Waters, Nash, Lambie, Kakoschke-Moore and Gallagher) were replaced by men, following special recounts in their respective states. One (Rhiannon) was replaced by a woman via a casual vacancy. One (Collins) was replaced by a man via a casual vacancy.

Additionally, six women have replaced male senators, one (Gichuhi) via a special recount, and five via casual vacancies (Kitching, Keneally, Stoker, Waters and Askew). Larissa Waters, who resigned in 2017 due to Section 44 issues, returned to the Senate in 2018, filling a casual vacancy following the resignation of Andrew Bartlett. She effectively returned to her old seat.

• Kimberley Kitching (Vic-ALP), was appointed on October 25, 2016 to fill a casual vacancy caused by the retirement of Stephen Conroy on September 30, 2016.
• Lucy Gichuhi (SA-Ind/Lib), was elected in a special recount on April 19, 2017, following the resignation of Bob Day on November 1, 2016. Day was subsequently disqualified by the High Court on April 5, 2017, due to an indirect pecuniary interest with the Commonwealth. Gichuhi, whilst appointed due to her position on the Family First Senate ticket, sat first as an independent before joining the Liberal Party.
• Larissa Waters (Qld-Greens) resigned her seat on July 18, 2017, due to her Canadian dual citizenship that put her in breach of Section 44 of the Constitution. On November 10, 2017, following a High Court ruling, a countback of Senate votes resulted in the election of Andrew Bartlett, a former Democrats senator.
• Fiona Nash (NSW-Nationals), was declared ineligible to nominate by the High Court on October 27, 2017, due to her dual citizenship. A special recount resulted in the election of the Liberal Party’s Jim Molan on December 22, 2017.
• Jacqui Lambie (Tas-JLN), resigned on November 14, 2017, due to dual citizenship. A special recount resulted in the election of Steve Martin on February 9, 2018. Martin joined The Nationals after his appointment.
• Skye Kakoschke-Moore (SA-NXT), resigned on November 22, 2017, due to dual citizenship. A special recount resulted in the election of Tim Storer, who had left the Xenophon group and sat as an independent.
• Kristina Keneally, a former ALP member of the NSW Parliament (2003-2012) and Premier of NSW (2009-2011), was approved by a joint sitting of the NSW Parliament on February 14, 2018 to fill the casual vacancy created by the resignation of Sam Dastyari.
• Listen to the NSW Parliament’s Joint Sitting to Nominate Keneally (2m)
  
• Amanda Stoker (Qld-LNP) was preselected on March 10, 2018 to fill a casual vacancy caused by the resignation of George Brandis on February 7, 2018. In accordance with Section 15 of the Constitution, she was formally chosen by the Queensland Parliament on March 21, 2018.
• On May 9, 2018, the High Court declared that Katy Gallagher, an ACT senator and former Chief Minister of the ACT, was ineligible to contest the 2016 election, by reason of her dual citizenship. The court ordered a special recount to replace Gallagher. This resulted in the election of David Smith, the second candidate on the ALP ticket, on May 23, 2016.
• On August 14, 2018, the NSW Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon resigned her seat. On August 15, a joint sitting of the NSW Parliament chose Mehreen Faruqi as her replacement. Faruqi is the 100th woman to be elected to the Senate.
• On August 27, 2018, the Queensland Greens Senator Andrew Bartlett resigned his seat. On September 6, 2018, the Queensland parliament appointed Larissa Waters to fill the casual vacancy. She was sworn in on September 10.
• On February 15, 2019, the Victorian Labor Senator Jacinta Collins resigned her seat. She had previously announced she would retire at the 2019 election. She was replaced by Rafael “Raff” Ciccone, who was appointed by the Victorian parliament on March 6, 2019. With Collins gone, the number of ALP women dropped from 15 to 14.
• On January 21, 2019, the Tasmanian Liberal Senator David Bushby resigned and was appointed consul-general in Chicago. His sister, Wendy Askew, was preselected to fill his casual vacancy. Her appointment took the number of Liberal women to nine.