I was recently invited to give a keynote address on unleashing the power of women. My horror, when I agreed, was almost instant. Not because of my trusty old friend Crippling Imposter Syndrome but...
Category: Feature
Alexa and Siri? Why not Alan and Sam?
In the The Jetsons, the 1960s Hanna-Barbera cartoon series set in the future, Rosie the robot did the chores that nobody else cared to do – cleaning and cooking, scratching George Jetson on the...
Are women missing from the Constitution?
The Australian Constitution is notoriously hard to change. Since 1901, when it came into being, there have been 19 referendums, proposing 44 changes, but only eight have been agreed to. Among the...
The politics of a scandal
Is this a sex scandal? Or a scandal about sexist culture? Monday’s 4 Corners story is about many things. For the details you’ll have to watch the story, as I won’t discuss them here. But let’s first...
The women who changed the world
Brazen: (adjective). Marked by shameless or disrespectful boldness; Hussies: (noun, plural). Lewd or brazen women. Brazen hussies: Bold, courageous and crusading women of the 1960s and 1970s who...
The silence of the unseen: Griselda Pollock on women artists
Griselda Pollock says she could describe herself as a “post-colonial, queer, feminist, international, social historian of art and cultural analysis”. That would make sense. She is all of these...
Would the government pass its own citizenship test?
Significant changes to Australia’s citizenship test, altering the way permanent residents can become Australian citizens, come into effect in just over two weeks. Mooted laws tightening access to...
The unkindest cut: mastectomies are hidden from history
In the middle of the 17th century, Mrs Townsend found a lump in her breast. Diagnosed with breast cancer by a local physician, she underwent a mastectomy without anaesthetic – an agonising...
What’s a ‘manel’ and what can we do about them?
Despite making up half the world’s population, women’s voices continue to be underrepresented and excluded in public discussions, forums and panels. The frequency of these instances is so striking...