| Hilma Molyneux Parkes | |
| Birth Name: | Hilma Olivia Edla Johanna Ekenberg |
| Birth Date: | 10 May 1859 |
| Birth Place: | Skövde, Sweden |
| Death Place: | Neutral Bay, New South Wales, Australia |
| Occupation: | ward sister and activist |
| Spouse: | Charles Molyneux Parkes |
| Nationality: | Swedish Australian |
Mrs Molyneux Parkes aka Hilma Olivia Edla Johanna Parkes born Hilma Ekenberg (10 May 1859 – 25 March 1909) was a Swedish-born Australian nurse and political organiser. She founded the Women's Liberal League of N.S.W. and the Women's Liberal Club. Her name is frequently mis-spelled "Molyneaux Parkes".
Parkes was born in Skövde where she gained a life-long Swedish accent. Her parents were Emilie Matilda née Toutin (descended from a Walloon family) and Birger Lorentz Ekenberg. Her father traded and manufactured chemicals. Her younger brother was the chemist Martin Ekenberg, sometimes credited as the inventor of the letter bomb.[1]
The family was very religious and members of the Mission Covenant Church of Sweden.[2] While the church and other similar denominations reflected the patriarchal tone of the society at the time ; there was an expectancy of women taking an active role in the church that may have influenced Molyneux Parkes to become a suffragette. As she herself recounted she was educated alongside her brothers and taught to form her own opinions and discuss current affairs within the family.[3]
She, at some point, gained some medical expertise as she became a ward sister at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney after she emigrated in 1883 together with an older brother. Five years later she married Charles Moleyneux Parkes; a clerk and she was known as Mrs Molyneux Parkes.The Womanhood Suffrage League of New South Wales began in 1891 and this attracted the interest of fellow campaigners that included Dora Montefiore, Rose Scott, Maybanke Wolstenholme[4] and Parkes became one of its founding vice-Presidents. Parkes was credited with lauding Rose Scott as "the leading woman suffragist".[5]
Two years later, New Zealand became the first country in the world to give women the vote. There was no strong opposition to attract suffrage militancy in Australia but political inertia meant that Australia as a whole and New South Wales took until 1902 to follow New Zealand's example. Australia was the second country to give women the vote but it would take over twenty years before all political positions were available to women candidates. In 1902 the New South Wales Womanhood Suffrage League was trying to redefine itself and Parkes was there when it was renamed the Women's Political Educational League. Parkes decided that she could improve women's rights by starting the Women's Liberal League of New South Wales inside the Liberal Party to improve the "position of women". Parkes was interviewed by Laura Luffman who was a journalist interviewing the leaders of the suffrage movement. Luffman became a supporter helping to publicise the work and in time she edited the journal and continued her work.
Parkes was the organisation's President, secretary and within a few years its journal's editor. In 1904 the Australian Women's National League was created based on "her" organisation. She opposed the idea of it becoming the women's branch of the Liberal Party as she suspected that it would become subservient.
She died in 1909 in the Sydney suburb of Neutral Bay.[6] Laura Luffman published In memoriam: Hilma Molyneux Parkes, founder of Women's Liberal League of N.S.W., 1902 and the Women's Liberal Club, 1909, in 1909.[7]
A network (active in 2022) was formed by Charlotte Mortlock and Alex Schuman to increase the number of women who are members of the Liberal Party and it is named "Hilma's Network".