Summary heading
Person registration completed as part of the Prime
Ministers Papers’ Project (November 2001).
Career within
Commonwealth
Margaret Elaine Whitlam (nee Dovey)
was born in Bondi, Sydney, the eldest child of Wilfred Dovey
(later a NSW Supreme Court judge) and his wife Mary Dorothy (nee Duncan). A
child of a cultured upper middle class family, Margaret attended the Bondi
Superior School and, from the age of 11, the Sydney Church of England Girls’
Grammar School (SCEGGS), Darlinghurst. She excelled at sport, participated in
school plays and developed considerable skill as a writer. In 1938, she
represented Australia in breaststroke at the Empire Games. During World War II
she was active in the University of Sydney’s Voluntary Aid Detachment, the
Women’s Army National Service and in 1943 worked as a social worker for the
Family Welfare Bureau. She married Edward Gough Whitlam at Vaucluse in April
1942, and they had 3 sons and a daughter.
During her husband’s early parliamentary career, Margaret
took little interest in political affairs, concentrating on her family
responsibilities. In 1964, she became a part time social worker with the
Parramatta District Hospital and a justice of the peace. Following Gough
Whitlam’s election as Leader of the Opposition, and for the first year of his
term of office as Prime Minister, Margaret continued to play the ‘traditional
supportive role expected of wives of political leaders’ (1). She gained some prominence
during the 1972 election, however, and was often outspoken. Intelligent and
energetic, her views on legalised abortion, marijuana and women in the
workforce were sometimes controversial but considered moderate in the context
of the contemporary women’s movement at the time. She began a weekly column for
the Woman’s Day which continued until 1975.
As Prime Minister’s wife (1972-1975), Margaret made some
changes at The Lodge, to décor and household staffing arrangements, and
increasingly tried to give her role some independence. She was more politically
active during the December 1975 election campaign, following her husband’s
dismissal as Prime Minister, and again during the 1977 election before he
stepped down as Leader of the Opposition.
From the late 1970s until Gough Whitlam‘s appointment as
Australian Ambassador to UNESCO (May 1983), Margaret Whitlam took on an
impressive number of responsibilities in education and the arts at both state
and national levels. She has served on the councils or boards of Commonwealth
Hostels Ltd (Director, 1974-1977), the National Advisory Councils for
International Womens’ Year (1974-1975), Musica Viva (1975) and the Australian Opera (c1977), Sydney
Dance Company (Director, 1977-1982), ACT Council of Social Service (President,
1978-1980), Sydney Teachers’ College (Councillor, 1978-1981), National Opera
Conference (Chairman, 1979-1981), Sydney College of Advanced Education
(President of Council, 1982-1983), Law Foundation of New South Wales (Chairman,
Board of Governors, 1982-1983), International Literacy Year (Chairman, National
Advisory Council, 1989-1991; UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador, 1990), Safer Australia
Committee (Co-Chairman, 1995-1996), College of Seniors, Microsurgery Research
Council and the Australia-Ireland Council. In the 1990s, as a travel consultant
for an international study program, Margaret led several travel tours to
Europe, China and South America. She was made an officer in the Order of
Australia (AO) in January 1983.
Margaret Elaine Whitlam died aged 92, in Sydney on 17 March
2012 and a funeral was held at St Jame’s Church
Sydney on 23 March 2012.
Links to other
Commonwealth Persons
22 Apr 1942 - :
CP 99, The Hon Edward Gough WHITLAM AC, QC
Publications
Whitlam, Margaret, My other world (Sydney,
Allen and Unwin, 2001)
End notes
1. Langmore, Diane, Prime
Ministers’ Wives, p235
Sources
Langmore, Diane, Prime
Ministers’ Wives (McPhee Gribble, 1992), pp227-255
Who’s Who in
Australia, 1985 (25th ed),
1996 (32nd ed), 2001 (37th ed)
Woman’s Day, 10,
17 and 24 July 1972
Wikipeadia
2012