High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! There have been 85 women in the Australian House of Representatives since the establishment of the Parliament of Australia. Women have had the right to both vote and sit in parliament since 1902, however the first woman to enter the House of Representatives was Dame Enid Lyons in 1943. At that election, the first woman member of the Senate was also elected, and there have been women members of the Senate continuously ever since. By contrast, the House of Representatives has had women members continuously only since 1980.