Merle Thornton

Education Thornton graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) from the University of Sydney in 1952 and studied philosophy as a post-graduate at the University of Queensland. In 1970 the law was changed to allow women to be served drinks in public bars in Queensland. In April of the same year, Thornton founded the Equal Opportunities for Women Association in Brisbane. Thornton and Bogner's protest, which addressed the public-private split for women, is recognised as a defining moment in the women's liberation movement in Australia. Thornton's stage play, Playing Mothers and Fathers, had a successful season at the Carlton Courthouse in 1990.

In 2009 as part of the Q150 celebrations, the 1965 Regatta Hotel protest was announced as a “List of Queensland's Q150 Icons” under the category of a "Defining Moment" for Queensland.

A tunnel boring machine used in Queensland is named after her.

Published works Thornton, Merle, "Sex equality is not enough for feminism", in Pateman, Carole and Gross, Elizabeths (eds), Feminist Challenges: Social and Political Theory, 1986, pp. 77–98. Thornton, Merle, After Moonlight, Interactive Press, Brisbane, 2004, 275 pp. Thornton, Merle, “Invisible Women Workers; Feminism, Consciousness and the Novel”, Overland, 182, Autumn, 2006, pp. 36–42. Thornton, Merle, “Our Chains: Rear View Reflections”, Queensland Review, Vol 14, No. 1, 2007, pp. 51–60.

Personal life and death Merle Wilson married Neil Thornton in April 1953 in Sydney, New South Wales.

Merle Thornton was the mother of historian Harold Thornton and Australian film and television actress Sigrid Thornton.

Thornton died on 16 August 2024, at the age of 93.