People Australia

Harriet (Ettie) Hooton (1875-1960) journalist, political activist and feminist 

Birth: 13 July 1875, at Biraganbil, near Gulgong, New South Wales, daughter of Thomas Hooton (1844-?), a miner born at Chevening, Kent, England, and Louisa Jane, née Howson (1858-1923), born at Bendigo, Victoria. Unmarried. Death: 21 April 1960, at Brentwood Hospital, North Perth, Western Australia; usual residence Bondi Street, Mount Hawthorn. Religion: Presbyterian. 

• Moved with her family to Victoria about a year after her birth and was educated at state schools at Geelong. She moved to Kalgoorlie, Western Australia in the 1890s.
• Joined the labour movement in 1916 to fight conscription. In the 1920s she was honorary secretary of the Labor Women's Central executive for six years and foundation secretary of the Perth Labor Women's Organisation for three years.
• In 1924 she represented the ALP at the British Labor Women's Conference in London and also attended the League of Nations General Assembly. In 1928 she represented Perth Labor Women on the State executive of the WA ALP; she was later Albany representative on this body, in all serving eleven years.
• From 1926 to 1932 she edited the women's section of the Westralian Worker. She was a friend of May Holman.
• Hooton was an early president of the National Council of Women. She was foundation secretary of the WA Parents and Citizens Association, and was continuously president or secretary until 1954.
• Cause of death myocardial failure (2 months), hypertension and arteriosclerosis. 

Sources
Battye Library, Biographical Index; H. J. Gibbney and Ann G. Smith, A Biographical Register 1788-1939, vol 1 (Canberra, 1987); Western Australian Parent & Citizen, October 1971; WA ALP, Labor Women's Central Executive, Souvenir, 1933; Labor Women's Silver Anniversary Souvenir, October 1937.