Vi Jordan 29 June 1913 – 7 May 1982 (Image courtesy of the Whitehead Collection, Picture Ipswich.)
Vi Jordan has been recognised by having the new seat of Jordan named after her in the Queensland Redistribution Commission’s proposal for the redistribution of the State’s electoral districts. Jordan – one of four electorates in the Ipswich area – is located between Bundamba and Logan and includes Springfield.
It is Queensland Women’s Week 6 – 12 March 2017 and International Women’s Day on Wednesday 8 March so this is a good time to recognise the achievements of Vi Jordan who did much to stand up for social justice and the rights of women.
Ellen Violet ‘Vi’ Jordan (nee Perrett) was born in Ipswich 29 June 1913 – the daughter of Anne Jane Brown and English-born James Bertie Perrett, an Ipswich Railway Workshops fitter. She was brought up in a strong union environment as her father was secretary of the Iron Workers’ Union when she was a child.
Vi was educated at Brassall State School and Ipswich Girls’ Grammar School.
She married David Jordan (a railway porter who later went on to become the chief railway signalman at Ipswich) on 14 May 1932 at St Thomas’s Church of England, North Ipswich.
Vi was the first:
- female alderman to be elected to the Ipswich City Council
- Labor woman elected to the Queensland Parliament
- woman to chair a Parliament in Australia (22 November 1973)
Vi was an alderman of the Ipswich City Council from 5 June 1961 to 13 April 1967.
Vi joined the Labor Party in 1946 and was the ALP Inaugural President for the Women’s Central Committee Queensland from 1956 to 1967. She was also the Inaugural President of the Australian ALP Women’s Executive from 1974 to 1976.
Vi Jordan was ALP Member for Ipswich West from May 1966 to 7 December 1974. She was the second woman to be elected to the Queensland Parliament since Irene Longman in 1929. Like Longman, Vi Jordan was the only woman member of the House for the whole of her parliamentary career. There were no women in the Queensland Parliament from 1932 to 1966. Today Annastacia Palaszczuk is premier and 25 out of 89 current members (including ministers and shadow ministers) are women.
Vi Jordan was always a strong advocate for women and social justice. This is demonstrated by her lengthy grievance in Parliament on Equal Pay for Women (1 December 1966) where a motion standing in her name from 4 August 1966 had not been debated during that session. The motion stated “That to remove a grave injustice which has been perpetrated on women for many years, this House resolves (a) that action should be taken during the current session to introduce legislation to provide for equal pay for equal work, irrespective of sex; and (b) that such legislation incorporates the abolition of discrimination against women in the Public Service.” (p.2098 Hansard 1 December 1966) Vi then goes on to say that “the fact this motion has not come before the House for debate is indeed a grievance with me, and I am sure it is also a grievance to many people, particularly women’s organisations and women generally.” (p.2098 Hansard 1 December 1966)
In 1975 Vi Jordan became a member of the Council of Queensland Women set up to advise the State Government on the status of women.
Vi was also an active member of the Ipswich social and sporting community. She was:
- patroness of the Ipswich Vigoro Club
- patroness of the Ipswich Vice Regal and Model Band
- a keen lawn bowler and on the committee of the North Ipswich Bowling Club
“Being a very good lawn bowler, Vi Jordan was selected for the Queensland Parliamentary Bowls Team when it went to Melbourne to compete in the 1972 inter-parliamentary bowls carnival. However, when the team arrived at the venue – which on this occasion was the greens at the Melbourne Cricket Ground – it was discovered that the MCG did not permit women to play on its greens. The press had a field day, but Jordan in her typical unruffled fashion merely described the incident as ‘Victoriana’!” Source: McCulloch p. 71
Awards:
- Member of the Order of Australia for her work in local government and the community (June 1976)
- Queen’s Jubilee medal (1977)
Information taken from: Australian Dictionary of Biography 2007; Jordan, Mrs Ellen Violet (Vi) Queensland Parliament Former Members Biography; McCulloch, John “100 years of women’s suffrage in Queensland 1905 – 2005: some important firsts” Queensland Review v. 12 no. 2: pp 63 – 72; Parliamentary Debates [Hansard] Legislative Assembly. Thursday, 1 December, 1966; The acceptance of women in Queensland Parliament has been a long road by Terry Sweetman. The Sunday Mail (Qld) 17 August 2013;”Labor loses a Violet – Vi Jordan dies”. The Queensland Times 8 May 1982 p 2; Queensland Parliament website; The Queensland Redistribution Commission’s Proposal (in full) PDF.