CONLON, PATRICIA ANNE (1939-1979), feminist, labour movement activist and public
servant, was born on 2 November 1939 at Neutral Bay, Sydney, eldest of five
children of Sydney-born parents John Hoare Carden, woolclasser, and his wife
Patricia Anne, née de Coque. Young Anne was educated at St Joseph's Convent
School, Neutral Bay, Monte Sant' Angelo College, North Sydney (dux 1956), and—on a
teacher's scholarship—at the University of Sydney (BA, 1961; MA, 1973) where she
became senior student at Sancta Sophia College. Renowned for her soprano voice,
she competed in the City of Sydney Eisteddfod, and performed in choral and musical
productions at school and university.
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Australian Dictionary of Biography
Anne Conlon was an outstanding activist and scholar whose career was cut short by her untimely death. She was an ALP candidate in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, Mosman by election in 1972.
Anne Conlon was the daughter of John and Patricia Carden. She was educated at St. Joseph's Convent Neutral Bay, and Monte Sant'Angelo College North Sydney where she was dux in 1956. She won a Teachers' College Scholarship to the University of Sydney, living at Sancta Sophia College. She graduated BA in 1961 and MA 1973. She taught at public high schools from 1961 until 1968, but spent 1964-65 on a postgraduate scholarship at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada.
In 1967 she married Telford Conlon, with whom she had two children. In 1968 she became research assistant to Professor John M Ward, at the University of Sydney. She was a founding member of the NSW Women's Electoral Lobby, and in 1973 was a convenor for its first national conference in Canberra. For WEL, she wrote a submission to the Henderson Commission into Poverty, and with Edna Ryan, to the National Wage Case of 1974. This was later expanded into Gentle Invaders: Australian Women at Work, published in 1975. She was one of the few women in WEL who belonged to the ALP, and was an active member of the Mosman branch. She contested the 1972 Mosman by election as a Labor candidate.
In 1976 she was appointed a lecturer at the Trade Union Training Authority, and in 1977 she became a founding member of the NSW Women's Advisory Council. From 1978, she worked as a public servant on women's issues, including amendments to the NSW Anti-Discrimination Act of 1977. The NSW Women's Advisory Council holds an annual lecture in memory of Anne Conlon.
View the full record at
Australian Women's Register
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