23 Facts About Ivy Wedgwood

Dame Ivy Evelyn Annie Wedgwood, was an Australian politician who served as a Senator for Victoria from 1950 to 1971, representing the Liberal Party.

Ivy Wedgwood was the first woman to represent Victoria in the Senate and the first woman to chair a select committee.

Ivy Wedgwood grew up in the suburb of Flemington, attending the local state school.

Ivy Wedgwood joined the Australian Women's National League in the 1920s, and eventually won election to its federal executive.

Ivy Wedgwood became a prominent figure in the early years of the Victorian Liberal Party, initially as a member of various committees and later as a party vice-president and head of its women's section.

Ivy Wedgwood represented Victoria on the Federal Executive and as a delegate to the Federal Council.

Ivy Wedgwood was elected to the Senate at the 1949 federal election.

Ivy Wedgwood was one of ten female candidates, but only she and Agnes Robertson of Western Australia were successful.

Ivy Wedgwood was re-elected in 1951,1953,1958, and 1964.

Ivy Wedgwood was the first woman to represent Victoria in the Senate and remains Victoria's longest-serving female parliamentarian; only six other women have served in the Senate for more than 20 years.

Ivy Wedgwood and her colleagues successfully lobbied for the removal of the marriage bar in the Commonwealth Public Service, and she was a driving force behind the creation of the women's bureau in the Department of Labour and National Service, which monitored trends in women's employment.

Ivy Wedgwood frequently raised the issue of equal pay for equal work, and pressed for the appointment of more women to the boards of government agencies and state-run enterprises.

Ivy Wedgwood attempted to secure benefits for her husband equal to those given to the wives of male MPs, but was unsuccessful.

Ivy Wedgwood once quipped that her autobiography should be titled Men I Have Had Breakfast With.

Ivy Wedgwood supported John Gorton's candidacy for the party leadership in 1968, but her initial enthusiasm was replaced by "distrust and disillusionment", and she was later part of the group that worked to replace him with William McMahon.

Ivy Wedgwood was prominent in Senate committees, most notably as a member of the Joint Committee of Public Accounts from 1955 until her retirement; she was its sole female member during that time.

Ivy Wedgwood later chaired the Standing Committee on Health and Welfare, overseeing the publication of a landmark report into disability issues.

In 1974, Ivy Wedgwood was in attendance at the launch of the National Liberal Party, a right-wing splinter group founded by her former colleague George Hannan.

Ivy Wedgwood was made a special magistrate of the Children's Court of Victoria in 1945, and the following year was nominated as a justice of the peace.

Ivy Wedgwood served on the state executive of the National Council of Women, and spent periods as president of the Australian Council of Domiciliary Nursing and the Women Justices' Association of Victoria.

Ivy Wedgwood was a long-serving honorary treasurer of the Royal District Nursing Service, and in retirement served as president of the After-Care Hospital, the organisation's hospice on Victoria Parade.

Ivy Wedgwood was created a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1967 Birthday Honours, for "distinguished services to parliament and the community".

Ivy Wedgwood died at her Toorak apartment on 24 July 1975, aged 78.