Women's History Month...2023. Post 22. Evelyn Parker (First Woman Mayor in Western Australia and Mayor of the City of Subiaco).

Woman's History Month...2023. Post 22...Helen Pretty...A Life of Service (1939).

This month is Women's History Month. I have decided to repost the stories of many of the wonderful women from Subiaco I have come across.

Evelyn Parker (First Woman Mayor in Western Australia and Mayor of the City of Subiaco).

Evelyn Helena Parker was born on 12 October 1907 in Hangkow, China to missionaries from Belfast. When Evelyn was 13 she moved to England with her mother and brothers. After the death of her father in 1920, the family migrated to Australia, first living in Sydney and then to Perth where she went to school at Perth College. After leaving school Evelyn obtained a position as a school monitor at Brookton.

In 1928/1929 Evelyn completed a one year teaching diploma at Claremont Teacher's Training College. Between 1930 and 1951 she taught at various Western Australian primary schools including Strathern, Jacketup, Marradong, Byford, Carlisle and Cottesloe.

Between 1951 and 1967 she was employed as a teacher and then appointed 'first mistress' in charge of all female students at Subiaco Primary School (Spillman, 2006, p.21).

In 1954 Evelyn was elected as a Councillor for the Central Ward on the Subiaco Council and then elected in 1975 as the first woman Mayor in Western Australia for the Subiaco Council where she remained before resigning until 1975.

From Spillman's book on Subiaco 'Tales of a singular city, Subiaco since the 1970's' and the chapter on Evelyn Parker 'The public life of Miss Parker'.

"...For most of the 20th century, the careers of women in Western Australia were seriously hindered by institutionalised discrimination on the basis of gender - and Parker encountered and registered her objection to this on numerous occasions...

In 1954... Evelyn Parker was Subiaco's third woman Councillor and, like her predecessors Rose Fuhrmann and Eileen Kerman took a special interest in community services. Kerman was the prime mover on the 1951 establishment of the Subiaco Children's Free Library, while Fuhrmann worked hard to improve infant health services and was a strong advocate of building senior citizens facilities. Parker took up the seniors' cause, was foundation secretary of the manage,England committee when the Subiaco Senior Citizens' Centre opened in 1967, and continued her association with the centre for a further ten years...

In 1974, Parker was one of Subiaco's longest serving councillors...Parker was asked by several fellow councillors to stand as mayor in the by-election of January 1975...Her timing was impeccable: she took office at the beginning of International Women's Year 1975 as Western Australia's first woman mayor...

Beyond this achievement and her long Council service, Parker was involved in the Red Cross and supporter of volunteer and fundraising activities for hospitals and Sister Kate's Home...she retired as Subiaco's mayor when she turned seventy in 1977..."

Other achievements include in 1975 being named Western Australian Citizen of the Year, in 1977 receiving an Officer of the British Empire and 1986 was named Freeman of the City of Subiaco. In 1990 the Evelyn H Parker Library in Subiaco named after her in her honour. She died at the age of 86 in 1993.

As part of the '200 Voices from the Oral History Rescue Group Project', Evelyn Parker talked about her time as a councillor and mayor on the City of Subiaco Council and some of her successes during that time. Downloads are available on the Australian Women's Register and a transcript is available at the Battye Library and Evelyn H. Parker library in Subiaco.

References

The Australian Women's Register

The Encyclopaedia of Women's Leadership in Twentieth - Century

Hunt, Lynn, Trotman, Jann & Edith Cowan University, 2002, 'Claremont Cameos: Women Teachers and the Building of Social Capital in Australia.' Edith Cowan University, W.A.

Spillman, K. 2006, 'Tales of a singular city : Subiaco since the 1970's.' City of Subiaco : Subiaco.

Women's Museum of Australia Links to an oral history interview with Evelyn Helena Parker, Mayor of Subiaco / by Gail O' Hanlon www.moa.com.au at the State Library of Western Australia.