Joyce Steele

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Joyce Steele (29 May 1909 – 24 September 1991) was an Australian politician from South Australia and one of the state's first two women elected to Parliament in 1959. The other was Jessie Cooper. Steele was elected for the Liberal and Country League in the safe seat of Burnside, later moving to the Davenport seat after electoral changes.

Before politics, she was a homemaker, an ABC broadcaster, and active in community groups, including the Queen Adelaide Club. She did not describe herself as a feminist and sat with the conservative wing of the Liberal and Country League.

In 1968, under Premier Steele Hall, she became South Australia’s Minister of Education, the first woman in SA to reach a Cabinet position. She faced crowded schools as the baby-boom generation grew, and modest increases in education funding followed. She also held the Social Welfare portfolio for the remainder of the Hall government and briefly served as Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Housing from March to June 1970.

Electoral reform in 1968 led to Burnside being replaced by the safe seat of Bragg, but Steele did not contest Bragg. She instead ran for Davenport, winning with a large share of the vote. Steele represented Davenport from 1959 until her retirement in 1973, after which Dean Brown succeeded her.

In 1981 she was honored as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE).

Born Joyce Wishart, she married Wilfred Steele in 1936 and had three children. She lived in Wattle Park, South Australia, and was also known for disability advocacy.