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ORDINARY
WOMEN/EXTRAORDINARY LIVES:
Women
First in their Field
This
permanent exhibition of over a hundred photographs,
may seem merely a collection of posed portraits of
ordinary women. However, they each have an
extraordinary story to tell - they were the very
first women, either in Australia or their State or
Territory, in their chosen field of
endeavour.
This
exhibition attempts to focus on over a century of
both white and indigenous Australian women breaking
new ground in the professional arena, from those
first permitted a tertiary education in the 1870's
to the first female ordained priests of the 1990's
who perhaps entered one of society's last
male-dominated strongholds. In addition, since
Australia is traditionally regarded as a nation of
sportsmen, there is also a section devoted to the
sportswomen who were first in their
field.
Today
there are few career choices from which women are
excluded. However, like the early pioneers, the
first women seen here were settlers of new and
uncharted territory, and their entry into a
man’s world was filled with
obstacles.
For
women in general, obtaining an education was the
first hurdle to confront and Australia’s
first-wave feminists of the last quarter of the
19th century succeeded in reforming this area
whilst their most important achievement was gaining
women's right to vote and to stand for parliament
(South Australia: 1895 and the Commonwealth:
1902).
Both
World Wars provided many women of differing backgrounds with the
opportunity for the first time to carry out a variety of "men's
jobs". However Australia's post 1945 "Populate or Perish" campaign
encouraged women to devote themselves to marriage and family life
as before. In the late 1960's and 1970's the Women's Liberation
Movement and resulting second-wave of feminism brought about a number
of powerful women's lobby groups, the establishment of the Office
of the Status of Women in Canberra, and equal opportunity legislation
which has significantly changed women's lives.
This
exhibition is intended to commemorate those pioneer women who went
before and to inspire others to make the journey to fulfil their
aspirations.
These
are some of the ordinary women of Australia who
chose to be extraordinary, for despite all odds,
they were first in their field.
Please
note all photographed women have been deliberately
listed as “ordinary women“ with first and
second names only although several have been
awarded distinguished titles. Years of birth and
death have been included where
available.
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