Emily Bennett

Emily Bennett born Emily McNamarra (29 January 1871 – 10 May 1941) was an Australian feminist and political organiser. She was the "best feminist" that Jessie Street knew.

Life Bennett was born in the Sydney suburb of Camperdown in 1871. She was the ninth child born to Mary Elizabeth (born Green) and Denis McNamarra. She married Francis Andrew Bennett in a Catholic ceremony on 11 April 1894. He was a widower with three children who lived in Cootamundra. In the following year their only child was born. Her husband was an auctioneer, and In 1902, 1903 and 1907 served as the mayor of Singleton. She moved back to Sydney after he died in 1913. and in 1921 Bennett became its organising secretary. Bessie Rischbieth led an Australian delegation to the conference and Bennett, representing the Women's League of N.S.W., was one of the ten delegates. She met Benito Mussolini and they were invited to events organised by the British ambassador, and another by Pius XI. She met Chrystal Macmillan when she joined a committee looking at how British citizens lost their rights if they married a man who was not British. Bennett went on to London where her belief in the power of women within the British Empire was confirmed. She stayed in England for months.

Bennett died in the Sydney suburb of Manly.