Mary Cecil Tenison Woods (née Kitson) CBE (9 December 1893 – 18 October 1971) was a South Australian lawyer and social activist.

[2][3] They moved to Adelaide, where John was a Detective Inspector,[4] and Mary and her sister attended St Aloysius College, where she was head prefect and dux.

[4] 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.

[4] She later said, "I was shocked at what I saw ... frightened little children were treated as adult criminals, being called on to plead guilty or not before His Sovereign Majesty, and so forth.

[1][3][5] After her husband's disbarring and abandonment of her in 1927, Tenison Woods left the firm to join Bennett, Campbell, Browne and Atkinson in 1928, where she was able to ensure a more secure income.

After her return, as Chair of the Children's Advisory Council, she urged the Minister for Education, Clive Evatt to undertake reform of the entire NSW welfare system.

[1][5] In 1945, Tenison Woods was invited to speak at an International Labour Organization conference in Montreal, but did not receive a permit to travel from the Department of External Affairs in time to attend.

[2][4] In 1946, she travelled to London and met with women pioneers in a number of fields, reporting to the BBC and the ABC on her meetings.

[1] Alongside Jean Daly, Phyllis Burke and others, Tenison Woods formed a group called "Altair" in 1944, with the object of monitoring public officials and convincing legislators and church officials to include women's views on political and social issues.

[3] When Roma Mitchell was appointed Australia's first female QC in 1962, Woods sent her a congratulatory telegram saying "you are indeed making history.

"[6] 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.

[1][2][5] He was a great-nephew to Julian Tenison-Woods, was two years younger than Mary, and had been an editor of the Adelaide University magazine alongside her.