Parker, Norma (1906-)

Also known as
Parker, Norma Alice (1906-2004)
Field of activity
Social worker and Educator
Libraries Australia
http://nla.gov.au/anbd.aut-an35080990
NLA Persistent Identifier
http://nla.gov.au/nla.party-468353

Biographies

Norma Parker taught social work at both Sydney University and the University of New South Wales. She was awarded an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Letters from Sydney University, and was appointed as a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (Civil) on 3 June 1972, for education and child welfare. The Norma Parker Correctional Centre for Women at Paramatta, New South Wales, is named after her.

Norma Brown (née Parker) was born in Perth to Ernest Parker, an accountant, and his wife, Annie. She attended the Sacred Heart High School and in 1927 completed a BA at the University of Western Australia. She became interested in social work training through Dr Ethel Stoneman, head of the university's course in psychology, who wanted social workers for her child guidance clinic, so she went, on a scholarship, to the Catholic University of America in Washington, where she specialised in psychiatric social work for her MA and Diploma of Social Service.

She returned to Australia in 1931 when her father died, after working briefly as a social worker in Cleveland and Los Angeles. In 1932, after three months of supervised practical work at the Melbourne Hospital, she became an almoner (a hospital worker who looks after the social and material needs of the patient). She was immediately appointed by St Vincent's Hospital at Fitzroy to establish an almoner department, only the third in Melbourne and in Australia. For the next four years she developed her new department, helping to extend medical social work through a professional association, serving on the executive of the Victorian Council for Social Training, and inducing Archbishop Daniel Mannix to establish the Catholic Social Service Bureau.

In 1936 she moved to Sydney, again to found an almoner department at St Vincent's Hospital in Darlinghurst. Sydney was to be her home until she returned to Melbourne to be closer to her family towards the end of her life. In Sydney in the late 1930s, she was involved in the nascent almoners' and social workers' associations, becoming president of the latter from 1940-43. Representing the association on the NSW Council of Social Service, she initiated its publication Social Service. In the early 1940s she again worked to set up a Catholic Welfare Bureau.

Sydney University took on the responsibility for general training of social workers in 1940. Until 1945 it was under the direction of Canadian-born , Elizabeth Govan. Brown was her assistant from 1941 to 1943, supervising students' field work and teaching social case work. Together, as members of the Delinquency Committee of the Child Welfare Advisory Council, they played a leading part in achieving a new minister, new departmental head and strong reform agenda for the NSW Child Welfare Department. (She lived in the Girls' Industrial School at Parramatta in January 1943, collecting evidence.)

In May 1943 she opened the first social work department in an Australian mental hospital at Callan Park, while continuing as a part-time lecturer at Sydney University. From mid-1944, a Commonwealth Fund of New York fellowship enabled her to study psychiatric social work for six months at the University of Chicago. She spent a further six months visiting other centres.

From 1945 to 1946 she was acting director of Sydney University's department of social studies, taking part in national discussions with the Department of Post-War Reconstruction. From 1946 to 1954 she was senior lecturer in social case work.

In 1946, partly to encourage the Australian Government to consult professional social workers about a projected international social welfare body to assist the United Nations, Brown argued for a national association of social workers and chaired the three interstate discussions which preceded its formation in 1946.

She served, until 1954, as the first president of the Australian Association of Social Workers and continued as vice-president for another four years. From 1949 to the end of 1954, she was again acting director of the Sydney University social work course. In 1955, the department of social studies became the department of social work, with social scientist Morven Brown as the new director and Norma Parker as the department's supervisor of professional training. When, in 1958, Morven Brown moved to the University of NSW as Australia's first professor of sociology, Brown again served as acting director until the appointment of Tom Brennan, another social scientist. Despite the obvious difficulties of having a professional school headed by someone not professionally qualified, Brown made the arrangement work and established excellent personal and professional relationships with both Morven Brown and Brennan.

In 1956 she convened and chaired a committee to establish the NSW Association for Mental Health and, during the 1950s and early 1960s, her initiatives and support contributed greatly to the founding and early development of the peak welfare body, the Australian Council of Social Service (ACOSS). In 1966, at the invitation of the UNSW, Brown took up a three-year appointment as associate professor and head of the department of social work in the school of sociology. On her retirement, this department became an independent school, headed by Australia's first professor of social work, John Lawrence. She was awarded an honorary doctorate by Sydney University in 1986.

In 1957, she had married "`Mont'' Brown, an 8th Division former serviceman who had been a prisoner of war on the notorious Burma Railway. He died in 1964.

View the full record at Australian Women's Register

Related people and organisations

Resources for Norma Parker

Selected resources (11)

Australian Women's Register

  1. Early Social Work in RetrospectAustralian Social Work 32 4 13-20 : Early Social Work in Retrospect
    Parker, N.
    [1979]
  2. The Professionalisation of Australian Catholic Social Welfare, 1920-1985
    Gleeson, Damian John
    [2006]
    Published: University of New South Wales
  3. Norma Parker Brown 1907–2004The Catholic Weekly Online The Catholic Weekly : Norma Parker Brown 1907–2004
    Gleeson, D J
    [2004]
    Published: The Catholic Weekly
    Series: http://www.catholicweekly.com.au/04/may/23/25.html
  4. Norma Alice Brown, CBE, Social worker, 1906-2004Sydney Morning Herald 28 : Norma Alice Brown, CBE, Social worker, 1906-2004
    Lawrence, John and Baldwin, Gay
  5. Professor Norma Parker CBEAustralian Social Work 39 2 2-3 : Professor Norma Parker CBE
    Mills, Millie
    [1986]
  6. Social Worker ProfilesAustralian Association of Social Workers Australian Association of Social Workers : Social Worker Profiles
    [2004]
    Published: Australian Association of Social Workers
    Series: http://www.aasw.asn.au/profile.htm
  7. Faith, Hope and Charity Australian Women and Imperial Honours: 1901-1989
    Australian Women's Archives Project
    [2003]
    Published: Australian Women's Archives Project
    Series: http://www.womenaustralia.info/exhib/honours/honours.html
  8. Norma Parker’s Record of Service
    Lawrence, R.J.
    [1969]
    Published: The Australian Association of Social Workers, University of New South Wales
  9. Focus on migrants : a social work perspective
    Parker, Norma
    [1973]
    Published: Australian Council of Social Service
  10. National Library of Australia Newspaper Microcopy Reading Room: Biographical cuttings on Norma Parker, social worker
  11. Fisher Library, Rare Books and Special Collections, University of Sydney: The official opening of the Norma Parker Centre, Parramatta / Corrective Services New South Wales
    New South Wales. Dept. of Corrective Services. Centre opened July 31, 1980. Rare book (Sydney : The Department, 1980). 12 pages.
    RB 1680.23

Resources by Norma Parker (1)

  1. Focus on migrants : a social work perspective / edited by Norma Parker
    Victorian Council of Social Service. Family Services Committee
    [ Book : 1973 ]
    At 43 libraries
    This resource is very relevant to your query (score: 8.214)

    This resource is very relevant to your query (score: 8.214)

Resources about Norma Parker (2)

  1. [Biographical cuttings on Norma Parker, social worker, containing one or more cuttings from newspapers or journals]
    [ Published : 1900-1990 ]
    At National Library
    This resource is very relevant to your query (score: 12.331)

    This resource is very relevant to your query (score: 12.331)

  2. The official opening of the Norma Parker Centre, Parramatta / Corrective Services New South Wales
    New South Wales. Dept. of Corrective Services
    [ Book : 1980 ]
    At 3 libraries
    This resource is very relevant to your query (score: 5.067)

    This resource is very relevant to your query (score: 5.067)

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  1. Department of Social Studies, University of Sydney
    Created by LizzyBrew, 2 items.

    Miss Norma Parker

  2. Family History
    Created by cmlatham, 1 item.

    divorce robert parker catherine mary maud parker

  3. PARKER family
    Created by cndyh1, 7 items.

    Items pertaining to the Parker family, early settlers on land at Adelaide Lead, near Maryborough, in central Victoria.

  1. Parker, Norma (1906-)
    ... Norma Parker taught social work at both Sydney University and the University of New South Wales ...
    This resource is very relevant to your query (score: 0.296)

    This resource is very relevant to your query (score: 0.296)

  2. Moffit, Constance Pauline (1906-1988)
    ... With her friend and colleague Norma Parker, Constance Moffit was largely responsible for convincing ...
    This resource may be of limited relevance to your query (score: 0.008)

    This resource may be of limited relevance to your query (score: 0.008)

  3. St Joan's International Alliance (1936-)
    ... and Dr Inez Parer. Foundation members of the New South Wales section included Norma Parker, Mary ...
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    This resource may be of limited relevance to your query (score: 0)

  1. Website: Australian Women in War
    www.womenaustralia.info
    Matching pages:
    View 38 matching archived pages
    This resource is likely to be relevant to your query (score: 0.061)

    This resource is likely to be relevant to your query (score: 0.061)

  2. Website: Australian Women's Archives Project
    www.womenaustralia.info
    Matching pages:
    View 55 matching archived pages
    This resource is likely to be relevant to your query (score: 0.049)

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  3. Website: Putting skirts on the sacred benches : women candidates for the New South Wales Parliament
    www.womenaustralia.info
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  1. Stars and planets / Ian Ridpath ; star charts by Royal Greenwich Observatory
    Ridpath, Ian
    [ Book, Map : 1978-2010 ]
    At 84 libraries
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  2. Thomas L. Kane and Elizabeth W. Kane Collection
    Kane, Thomas Leiper, 1822-1883; Kane, Elizabeth Wood, 1836-1909
    [ Map, Unpublished : 1762 ]
    View online
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    This resource may only be vaguely related to your query: matching terms may only have been found in the full text contents of the resource (score: 0.003)

  1. Norma Parker's record of service / [edited and compiled by] R. J. Lawrence
    Parker, Norma A
    [ Book : 1969 ]
    At 10 libraries
    This resource is likely to be relevant to your query (score: 0.888)

    This resource is likely to be relevant to your query (score: 0.888)

  2. Textbook of anatomy & physiology / Catherine Parker Anthony, Gary A. Thibodeau ; Ernest W. Beck, illustrator
    Anthony, Catherine Parker, 1907-
    [ Book : 1944-2010 ]
    read online at Open Library/Internet Archive
    View online
    At 69 libraries
    This resource may have relevance to your query (score: 0.59)

    This resource may have relevance to your query (score: 0.59)

  3. The Oxford picture dictionary. Norma Shapiro and Jayme Adelson-Goldstein ; translation by Techno-Graphics and Translations, Inc
    Shapiro, Norma
    [ Book, Sound : 1998-2010 ]
    Languages: English, Arabic, Russian, [6 others]
    At 77 libraries
    This resource may be of limited relevance to your query (score: 0.439)

    This resource may be of limited relevance to your query (score: 0.439)

  4. Forbidden love : a harrowing true story of love and revenge in Jordan / Norma Khouri
    Khouri, Norma
    [ Book : 2003 ]
    At 115 libraries
    This resource may be of limited relevance to your query (score: 0.352)

    This resource may be of limited relevance to your query (score: 0.352)

  1. The Oxford picture dictionary. Norma Shapiro and Jayme Adelson-Goldstein ; translation by Techno-Graphics and Translations, Inc
    Shapiro, Norma
    [ Book, Sound : 1998-2010 ]
    Languages: English, Arabic, Russian, [6 others]
    At 77 libraries
    This resource may be of limited relevance to your query (score: 0.439)

    This resource may be of limited relevance to your query (score: 0.439)

  2. The little blue parcel / Norma Spaulding ; illustrated by Stephen Michael King
    Spaulding, Norma
    [ Book, Audio book : 1994-2001 ]
    At 75 libraries
    This resource may be of limited relevance to your query (score: 0.228)

    This resource may be of limited relevance to your query (score: 0.228)

  3. The misfits
    Seven Arts Productions
    [ Video : 1961-2008 ]
    Languages: English, French, Spanish, [2 others]
    Possibly online
    At 28 libraries
    This resource may be of limited relevance to your query (score: 0.213)

    This resource may be of limited relevance to your query (score: 0.213)

  4. Star quality / Joan Collins
    Collins, Joan, 1933-
    [ Book, Audio book : 2001-2003 ]
    read online at Open Library/Internet Archive
    View online
    At 50 libraries
    This resource may be of limited relevance to your query (score: 0.197)

    This resource may be of limited relevance to your query (score: 0.197)

  1. Papers of Robert Stewart Parker
    Parker, R. S. (Robert Stewart), 1915-2002
    [ Unpublished : 1908-2002 ]
    At National Library
    This resource may be of limited relevance to your query (score: 0.1)

    This resource may be of limited relevance to your query (score: 0.1)

  2. Hardy, Rosezella Dalton Photograph Collection
    Rosezella Dalton Hardy
    [ Unpublished : 1906 ]
    View online (access conditions)
    This resource may only be vaguely related to your query: matching terms may only have been found in the full text contents of the resource (score: 0.02)

    This resource may only be vaguely related to your query: matching terms may only have been found in the full text contents of the resource (score: 0.02)

  3. Oak Ridge Cemetery Records, Page 106
    [ Unpublished ]
    View online
    This resource may only be vaguely related to your query: matching terms may only have been found in the full text contents of the resource (score: 0.007)

    This resource may only be vaguely related to your query: matching terms may only have been found in the full text contents of the resource (score: 0.007)

  1. Professor Norma Parker C.B.E., Mrs Norma Brown: editorial
    Mills, Millie
    Australian Social Work
    [ Article : 1986 ]
    This resource may have relevance to your query (score: 0.214)

    This resource may have relevance to your query (score: 0.214)

  2. Norma Parker: the beginnings of social work in New South Wales, a personal account. [Edited version of an address given on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the New South Wales Branch of the Australian Association of Social Workers, Sydney ...
    Parker, Norma
    Australian Social Work
    [ Article : 2004 ]
    This resource may be of limited relevance to your query (score: 0.165)

    This resource may be of limited relevance to your query (score: 0.165)

  3. Australia's first trained social worker [Obituary for Norma Parker Brown, 1907-2004]
    Gleeson, D. J
    Catholic Weekly
    [ Article : 2004 ]
    View online
    This resource may be of limited relevance to your query (score: 0.156)

    This resource may be of limited relevance to your query (score: 0.156)

  4. Interview With Norma McCorvey, Allan Parker
    The America's Intelligence Wire
    [ Article : 2005 ]
    View online (conditions apply)
    This resource may be of limited relevance to your query (score: 0.149)

    This resource may be of limited relevance to your query (score: 0.149)

Pictures, photos, objects

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  1. MISS NORMA PARKER, B.A.
    Sunday Times (Perth, WA : 1902 - 1954) Sunday 29 July 1928 Section: Fourth Section p 1 Article Illustrated
    ... MISS NORMA PARKER, B.A. Eldest Eldest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. E. Parker, of Vincent-sreet, Mt. Lawley, who left by the Largs Bay for Washington (U.S.A.) to take up a two years' scholarship course to applied psychology. ... 37 words
    This resource is likely to be relevant to your query (score: 2.468)

    This resource is likely to be relevant to your query (score: 2.468)

  2. SOCIAL WORKER'S U.S. FELLOWSHIP Miss Norma Parker
    The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954) Tuesday 16 May 1944 p 6 Article
    ... SOCIAL WORKER'S U.S. FELLOWSHIP Miss Norma Parker Miss Norma Parker, psychiatric tric social ... Clinics throughout the United States. Fellowships are awarded annually. Miss Parker is the first ... throughout the States visit ins mental hospital.1! and clinics. Miss Parker hopes, on her return to ... 320 words
    This resource is likely to be relevant to your query (score: 1.849)

    This resource is likely to be relevant to your query (score: 1.849)

  3. LATEST TELEGRAMS. [FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT] [BY TELEGRAM.] ADELAIDE April 19.
    Northern Territory Times and Gazette (Darwin, NT : 1873 - 1927) Friday 26 April 1907 p 3 Article
    ... England became engaged-in a life and death struggle. The British Budget shows a surplus for 1906-7 of ... Norma, 2122 tons gross register, loaded with wheat/ was lying at anchor, when the iron ship Ardencraig ... the Norma and cut her to the water's edge. The Norma Sank, and one of her crew, a Swede named ... 872 words
    This resource may have relevance to your query (score: 0.026)

    This resource may have relevance to your query (score: 0.026)