Dame Nancy Buttfield DBE (1912–2005) was the first South Australian woman member of Federal Parliament. The daughter of car industry pioneer Sir Edward Holden, she was educated at Adelaide's Woodlands Church of England Girls' Grammar School and at a finishing school in Paris. Later, she studied psychology, music and economics part-time at Adelaide University. She married businessman Frank Buttfield in 1936. Her interest in politics was encouraged by her father, a state parliamentarian, and family friend Robert Menzies, from whom she sought advice about a political career. In 1954, she was endorsed as the Liberal Party candidate for Adelaide, unsuccessfully contesting the seat in the federal election that year. When a senate seat fell vacant in 1955, she was elected to parliament as a Liberal senator for South Australia, serving from 1955 to 1965 and again from 1968 to 1974. Though her support for women's rights put her at odds with some of her male colleagues, she lobbied on issues such as equal pay for women and for the right of married women to work in the Public Service. Despite her staunch anti-communist views, she was the first female senator to visit the USSR, and she toured China alone in 1962. In 1972, she was made a Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. After she retired from politics in 1974 she and her husband developed the Youth Venture Club. She also served on many boards and made philanthropic contributions to youth and the arts.
