People Australia

Edna Ryan, 1991

Australian National University Archives, 885/203635

Edna Minna Ryan, née Nelson (1904-1997) clerical worker, trade union official, communist, alderman, Labor activist, feminist and author

Birth; 15 December 1904 at Ultimo, Sydney, New South Wales, daughter of Nicholas Martin Nelson [Nicholai Mathias Nilsen], a butcher and a socialist, of Norwegian ancestry, born at sea off Newfoundland, and native-born Christine Carolina, née Struck, an office-cleaner. Marriages: (1) 17 April 1926 at the registrar’s office, Rockdale, Sydney, to English-born Ernest Lloyd Jones, a salesman and a socialist. The marriage ended in divorce in 1935. (2) 15 January 1943 at the district registrar’s office, Paddington, to John Francis Edwin (Jack) Ryan (1902-1958), a butcher, and a Communist. They had two daughters and one son. Death: 10 February 1997 at Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. 

• Tenth of twelve children. Educated at John Street School, Pyrmont, Tempe and Newtown Public Schools. Won a bursary to Fort Street Girls High School, but was forced to leave in 1919 because of her family’s straitened circumstances.
• Influenced by the Industrial Workers of the World during World War I and participated in demonstrations during the 1917 strike.
• Joined the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) and Militant Women’s Movement in 1927 at the invitation of Hetty Weitzel (later Ross). Secretary of MWM Sydney district group in 1927; organised public lectures and speaking at hall and street meetings.
• Participated in first International Women’s Day rally in 1928. Involved in campaign to support 1929 timberworkers’ strike.
• Was employed as a clerical worker/typist and was the sole family breadwinner in 1930-1933. Left the CPA in 1930 following her husband’s expulsion. Voluntary organiser for the Workers’ Educational Association in eastern Sydney suburbs, 1933-1945.
• In 1944 she joined the Australian Labor Party. She was campaign secretary, Phillip Federal Electorate, ALP, 1949. Co-founder of Workers’ Educational Association Residential School for Mothers and Children 1952. ALP candidate for the state seat of Mosman in 1953.
• Moved with her family to Canley Vale in 1953 following her husband’s death. Sole family breadwinner from 1954 to 1972, running family poultry farm and working as a clerk.
• Assumed active role in the Municipal and Shire Council Employees’ Union (MSCEU). President, Liverpool State Electorate Council, ALP, 1960-1965. Campaign director, Liverpool State Electorate Council 1962-1965; vice-president, Werriwa Federal Electorate Council 1962-1965.
• Alderman on Fairfield Municipal Council in 1956-1965. Council’s first woman deputy mayor in 1958; first woman chair, various Council committees; campaigned successfully for construction of municipal swimming pool. 
• First woman delegate to state conference, MSCEU, 1963. First woman president Local Government Officers’ Association 1964-1974.
• Active in the Women’s Electoral Lobby from 1973. Acted as advocate for WEL in 1974 National Wage Case (which extended minimum wage to women) and Maternity Leave Case, 1978.
• One of party of women sponsored by Federal government to Women’s Tribune in Mexico for International Women’s Year, 1975. Co-founder of Women’s Trade Union Commission, 1975, which organised first national conference of trade union women, 1976. Submissions on issues affecting working women to various government inquiries, including Royal Commission on Human Relationships, 1976, NSW Anti-Discrimination Board, 1977, and Conciliation and Arbitration Commission Inquiry into Principles of Wage Fixation, 1978.
• Life member Fairfield Municipality Senior Citizens’ Welfare Association, Annual award of the United Associations of Women, 1976. Delivered first Anne Conlon Memorial Lecture, 1980.
• Awarded honorary Doctorate, Sydney University, Refused to accept nomination for Order of Australia award. Awarded life membership of the ALP, 1987. Lobbied for revision of federal Labor’s 1993 Industrial Relations (Reform) legislation to strengthen protection for women workers under enterprise bargaining.
• Author of Gentle Australian Women at Work, 1788-1974, 1975 (with A. Conlon); Two-thirds of a Man. Women and Arbitration in New South Wales 1902-08, 1984. 

Sources
Who’s Who of Australian Women, 1982; Joyce Stevens, Taking the revolution home: work among women in the Communist Party of Australia (Fitzroy, Vic, c.1987); Sydney Morning Herald (Good Weekend), 12 March 1994; The Hummer, 2(8), 1997; information from L. Ryan, 1997.