Edith Dircksey Cowan, OBE (August 2, 1861 - June 9, 1932) was an Australian politician, social campaigner and the first woman elected as a representative in an Australian parliament.

Cowan was born and raised at Glengarry Station, near Geraldton, Western Australia. When she was seven years old, her mother died in childbirth and at age eleven, her father sent her to boarding school. Her father remarried, but when Edith was fifteen, he shot and killed his second wife. He was subsequently hanged for the crime.

At the age of seventeen, she married James Cowan, the registrar and master of the Supreme Court. They lived in the Perth beachside suburb of Cottesloe for most of their married life. She became concerned with injustices in the legal system, and became involved in the Karrakatta Club, a group where women "educated themselves for the kind of life they believed they ought to be able to take." In time, she became the club's president. They also became involved in the campaign for women's suffrage, and in 1899, were finally successful.

After the turn of the century, Cowan turned her eye to welfare issues. She was particularly concerned with women's health, and the welfare of disadvantaged groups, such as prostitutes. The building of Perth's King Edward Hospital for Women in 1916 was largely a result of her efforts. She helped form the Women's Service Guild in 1909, and was a co-founder of the Western Australia's National Council for Women, serving as president from 1913 to 1921 and vice-president until her death.

Cowan believed that children should not be tried as adults, and founded the Children's Protection Society. The society had a major role in the subsequent introduction of children's courts. In 1915, she was appointed to the bench of the new court, and continued on in this position for eighteen years. In 1920, Cowan became one of the first female Justices of the Peace.

During World War I, Cowan collected food and clothing for soldiers at the front and coordinated efforts to care for returned soldiers. She became chairperson of the Red Cross Appeal Committee, and was rewarded when, in 1920, she was appointed a member of the Order of the British Empire.

In 1920, Western Australia passed legislation allowing women to stand for parliament. At the age of 60, Cowan stood as the Nationalist candidate for the Legislative Assembly seat of West Perth , and won a surprise victory. She championed women's rights in parliament, pushing through legislation which allowed women to be involved in the legal profession. She succeeded in placing mothers in an equal position with fathers when their children died interstate, and was one of the first to promote sex education in schools. However, she lost her seat at the 1924 election, and failed to regain it in 1927.

In her final years, she was an Australian delegate to the 1925 International Conference of Women held in the United States. She helped to found the Western Australian Historical Society in 1926 and assisted in the planning of Western Australia's 1929 Centenary celebrations. Though she remained involved in social issues, illness forced her to somewhat withdraw from public life in later years. Cowan passed away in 1932, at the age of 71.

Her portrait appears on Australia's fifty dollar note, and a clock tower in Perth's Kings Park was constructed in her memory. In 1991, the Western Australian College of Advanced Education was re-named Edith Cowan University in her honour. The Western Australian federal electorate of Cowan is also named after her.