(1932-1976)
Ivy
Weber was left a widow for the second time in 1930, when her husband,
the athlete and educationist Clarence Weber died, leaving her with eleven
children. She believed girls should put ‘marriage and motherhood before
any other career’, but by dint of ‘working a tremendous amount of overtime’,
she led a successful public life.
Weber became the first woman to win a seat in a general election in
the Victorian Parliament. She won and held the seat of Nunawading in
three successive contests between 1937 and 1943, as one of three candidates
endorsed by the newly-formed League of Women Electors of Victoria, of
which she was the president. Her electoral platform included a true
democracy to provide economic security, free education from kindergarten
to university, a national health scheme, slum eradication and housing
for the poor and a comprehensive national insurance scheme which would
cover hospital treatment. In Parliament she lobbied for female representation
on government boards, equal pay for teachers, women’s right to serve
on juries and a homemaker’s allowance for women with families.
Before entering parliament, Weber lectured on figure control at the
Berlei Corset Company, gave radio talks on physical culture and served
on bodies as varied as the Playgrounds Association, the Red Cross, the
Australian Temperance Council, the Women’s Christian Temperance Union
and the National Fitness Council. As an executive member of the National
Council of Women, she played a leading part in the establishment of
the physical education course at the University of Melbourne, which
was the first in Australia.
Weber resigned her State seat in 1943 and unsuccessfully contested
the Federal seat of Henty as part of the League of Women Voters’ Women
for Canberra Movement. She was also unsuccessful in contesting the State
seat of Box Hill in 1945. She subsequently held administrative positions
with the Department of Supply, the Country Party and the Women’s Movement
Against Socialism.
