Mary Cecil Tenison Woods

Mary Cecil Tenison Woods (née Kitson) (9 December 1893 – 18 October 1971) was a South Australian lawyer and social activist. She was the first female lawyer and public notary in South Australia. She wrote nine legal textbooks and from 1950 until 1959 served as Chief of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. She was an early advocate for child welfare and juvenile justice in Australia.

Early life and education Mary Cecil Kitson was born on 9 December 1893, the fourth of seven children to John Kitson, a police officer, and Mary Agnes McClure, in the Mid North South Australian town of Caltowie. They moved to Adelaide, where John was a Detective Inspector, Tenison Woods was one of the first, beginning her degree in 1912, and the first South Australian woman to graduate with a Bachelor of Laws in 1916. After completing her articles with Poole and Johnstone in 1917, she was named managing clerk of the firm. Thomas Slaney Poole had been one of her University lecturers and was soon after promoted to the Supreme Court.

Honours The Law Society of South Australia called Tenison Woods an "authoritative and widely published voice" on child welfare and an advocate for the advancement of women.

Personal life Tenison Woods married lawyer Gordon Tenison Woods at St Laurence's Church, North Adelaide, on 13 December 1924.