Maureen Thelma Watson

Before entering politics, Watson was a birth control advocate and the vice-chair of the Bulawayo Family Planning Association.^[8] In 1955, the association opened the first family planning clinic for whites in Bulawayo in the Margaret Roe Child Welfare Centre.^[8]

In the 1958 election, Watson, the United Federal Party candidate, was elected to the Southern Rhodesian Legislative Assembly, representing the Hillside constituency.^[1][2] She lost the first round to Dominion Party incumbent Jack Graham Pain, placing second out of three candidates.^[2] She went up against Pain in the second count, winning with 52% of the vote.^[2] This made her the second woman ever elected to Parliament (the first, Tawsie Jollie, was elected in 1923).^[9][10] Watson was reelected in 1962 with 56% of the vote, defeating Rhodesian Front candidate William Redpath Kinleyside.^[2] Nevertheless, Watson's United Federal Party lost power that election to Rhodesian Front, who gained a solid majority of 35 seats, compared to the UFP's 29.

In Parliament, Watson opposed racial discrimination and the conservative agenda of the Rhodesian Front, which was founded in 1962 by whites who opposed any transition toward majority black rule in Rhodesia. In 1961, she called for liquor laws to be applied equally regardless of race.^[11] She also continued her advocacy for birth control and women's autonomy. In 1963, she opposed legislation that banned "any native" from having sexual intercourse with a "white woman or girl."^[12] Watson, the sole woman MP, complained that "this Act [constitutes] an unwarranted act of paternalism by a largely male Parliament against the European women of this country."^[12]

After the United Federal Party dissolved in 1963, Watson joined the Rhodesia Party, formed by Roy Welensky and other moderates who opposed the Rhodesian Front agenda and the looming possibility of UDI. In 1964, Watson announced she would not run for reelection in 1965.^[13] In the late 1960s, she served on the board of the National Free Library of Rhodesia.^[14]

Maureen Watson died of emphysema in Bulawayo on 29 August 1994, at the age of 68.^{[citation needed]}

1958 Southern Rhodesian general election: Hillside (First count)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	Dominion Party	Jack Graham Pain	637	46.3
	United Party	Maureen Thelma Watson	510	37.0
	United	Albert John Lister Lewis	230	16.7
Majority			127	9.3
Turnout			1,377	76.3

1958 Southern Rhodesian general election: Hillside (Second count)

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	United Party	Maureen Thelma Watson	701	52.0	+15
	Dominion Party	Jack Graham Pain	646	48.0	+1.7
Majority			55	4.0
Turnout			1,347	74.8	−1.5

1962 Southern Rhodesian general election: Hillside

Party		Candidate	Votes	%	±%
	United Party	Maureen Thelma Watson	822	55.7	+3.7
	RF	William Redpath Kinleyside	653	44.3
Majority			169	11.4	+7.4
Turnout			1,475	82.2	+7.4

Southern Rhodesian Legislative Assembly
Preceded by Jack Grahame Pain	Member of Parliament for Hillside 1958 – 1965	Succeeded by Dennis Fawcett Phillips