Edith Dircksey Cowan.

Edith Dircksey Cowan was a Western Australian social worker, feminist, and politician who lived during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. She is most well-known as the first woman elected to the Australian parliament, and for her commitment to improving the social state of women and children in Western Australia. Perhaps the most famous Australian woman during the early years of the twentieth century, Cowan was instrumental in the campaign for women’s suffrage in Western Australia—gained in 1899. Cowan was also very instrumental in opening several nurseries and hospitals in the region and expanding the legal rights of working and non-working mothers. Because of her political and community service, the women’s movement in Western Australia became a model for feminist movements across the world.