EducationWomen

Headmasters protest as South Australia's Blanche McNamara made Australia's first female inspector in 1897

Headmasters protest as South Australia's Blanche McNamara made Australia's first female inspector in 1897
Blanche McNamara, Australia's first female school inspector, had been first assistant in the girls department at North Adelaide Model School in Tynte Street from 1883. The school, with the band pictured in front of staff and students in about 1890, was designed by E.J. Woods.
School image courtesy State Library of South Australia

The appointment of Australia’s first woman inspector to South Australia's state schools, Blanche McNamara, in 1897 was resisted by the males who had dominated as heads of state schools, although most teachers were women, after education became compulsory in 1875.

McNamara’s family arrived in South Australia from Ireland in 1852. The sixth of nine children, she was educated by Dominican nuns at St Mary's Convent school in Franklin Street, Adelaide.

In 1875, Blanche McNamara became a pupil teacher at Rundle Street School in Adelaide city. Her first appointment in 1879 was to the girls department of Le Fevre Peninsula Public School. In 1883, she was appointed first assistant in the girls department of the prestigious North Adelaide Model School, and was promoted to headmistress at Port Adelaide school in 1890 – in charge of the girls and infant departments but subordinate to the headmaster.

As a result of South Australian women getting the vote in 1895, the government began appointing a few women to important public offices. In 1897, the education minister John Cockburn, announced that one of the two vacancies for state school inspectors would be for a woman.

The most senior headmasters in city schools objected immediately, with an unsuccessful deputation to the minister. At a special meeting of the Adelaide Teachers Association, the male headmasters defeated a motion by headmistresses supporting a woman inspector. The men said there were no suitable candidates among the headmistresses and not enough work for a woman inspector. They also feared “petticoat government”.

Blanche McNamara’s appointment was surprising as she was most junior headmistress in the education department. She was required to report on the women students at the teachers training college, the Advanced School for Girls and the girls and infant departments in 25 city and suburban schools. She also visited some south-east region country schools.

McNamara's competence in her pioneering role as inspector, made her a role model for women teachers.

But she recommended reshaping girls’ education so as “to better fit them for the duties they might, in later years, perform as daughters, wives and mothers”. She suggested that pupil teachers and teachers training college students, should be taught how to sew and how to teach sewing in a group way. In the early 20th Century, this more scientific approach to housewifery was a principle of the domestic economy movement.

McNamara’s time as an inspector was brief. She contracted tuberculosis in 1898 and died in 1900.

Other related ADELAIDE AZ articles

In line with the eastern states, South Australia's literacy and numeracy tests from 2019 demanded that graduate teachers had skills equal to the top 30% of the population..
Government >
Literacy/numeracy test for South Australian student teachers from 2019 as focus tightens on class performance
READ MORE+
English and mathematics, along with arts and languages, were to be the key focus of the new curriculum for South Australian public school students from 2025.
National >
South Australian public schools get a new curriculum: English, maths, arts, languages to be focus from 2025
READ MORE+
Some of the students at St Andrew's School in what became the Adelaide inner suburb of Walkerville in 1870. Top right: Reception students being welcomed into their houses –  Browne, Eggleton, Lawson, Smith – with a bagpipe procession. Bottom right: An overpass on Smith Street linked the campuses of the expanded St Andrew's School.
Suburbs >
Walker's Village in 1850 creates St Andrew's, a standard bearer for Adelaide primary school excellence – with music
READ MORE+
Anna Goldsworthy combined her distinguished international music career with writing, including award-winning memoir Piano Lessons.
Music >
Anna Goldsworthy as Elder Conservatorium leader in Adelaide from 2022 after a symphony of music achievements
READ MORE+
A plumbing workshop at St Patrick's Technical College in Adelaide's northern suburbs.
Technology >
St Patrick Technical College from 2007 reverses 1970s South Australian push to end technical high schools
READ MORE+
Adeline Schröder with some students at her Osmond House School at 67 Osmond Terrace, Norwood. Image courtesy Joan Amos
Education >
Adeline Schröder runs her own 'excellent' school for girls on Osmond Terrace at Norwood, 1883 to 1907
READ MORE+

 

 
©2025 Adelaide AZ | Privacy | Terms & Disclaimer | PWA 1.1.58