There have been 121 women in the Australian Senate since the establishment of the Parliament of Australia. Women have had the right to stand for federal parliament since 1902, and there were three female candidates for the Senate at the 1903 federal election (Vida Goldstein, Nellie Martel, and Mary Moore-Bentley). However, it was not until Dorothy Tangney's victory at the 1943 federal election that a woman was elected. Since then, all states and territories have had multiple female senators – in chronological order: Western Australia (1943), Queensland (1947), Victoria (1950), South Australia (1955), Tasmania (1975), the Australian Capital Territory (1975), New South Wales (1987), and the Northern Territory (1998). History The passage of the Commonwealth Franchise Act allowed women to both vote and stand for election to the Parliament of Australia. Numerous women stood unsuccessfully as independents or as representatives of minor parties for election to the Senate for the 1903 election. Nellie Martel and Mary Ann Moore-Bentley of New South Wales ran, each earning around 18,000 votes, with the leading man winning roughly 190,000 votes. Vida Goldstein, from Victoria, ran and gained 51,497 votes, which was roughly half the votes the winning man gained. She then ran unsuccessfully again in 1910 and 1917 after a short stint attempting to breakthrough into the House of Representatives. In 1919, Mary McMahon of NSW ran unsuccessfully, and was not followed by another woman candidate until 1934 saw Lillie Beirne (NSW) and Joanna Helbach (QLD) run. Following this, Jeanne Young of Western Australia ran in 1937 and Adela Walsh (NSW) and Dorothy Tangney (WA) ran in 1940. However, women were not successful in entering federal politics until World War II. The major parties did not endorse any female candidates for the Senate before the War. The first woman to be elected to the Senate was representative Dorothy Tangney in 1943; she represented Western Australia. Following Tangney's entry into politics, the Senate has continuously had women members. However, despite the success, the number of women running continued to fluctuate drastically. Prior to 1981, the proportion of women running as candidates peaked at 20% in 1977 but had a low of only 1.3% in 1953. Between the years 1943 and 1969, there were only five elections of women and Enid Lyons accounted for three of these in the House of Representatives. Despite this, 41 women were elected into the Senate between 1943 and 1980. The