Lois Bryson

Lois Joyce Bryson (5 October 1937 – 7 January 2024) was an Australian sociologist. She was one of the founders of academic sociology in Australia.

Bryson completed her Bachelor of Arts (BA) in 1959 followed by a Diploma of Education in 1964, both at the University of Melbourne, before achieving her PhD in sociology at Monash University. She was an early second-wave feminist in Australia.

In 1972, Bryson wrote An Australian Newtown (1972), Australia's first sociological study of a suburb with Faith Thompson and, with Ian Winter, Social Change, Suburban Lives (1999), a re-study of the same suburb thirty years on.

Bryson also authored studies regarding women in sport, women's health and the welfare state. She worked as a professor at the University of Adelaide.

Her career in research was recognised by her election as a fellow of the Academy of the Social Sciences in Australia in 1998, membership of the Australian Research Council's research training and careers committee, and the award of a Federation medal (2003).

In retirement she was an emeritus professor at the University of Newcastle and an adjunct professor at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.

Bryson died in January 2024. She is survived by her two children and two grandchildren.