Blaze e-catalogue - Catalog - Page 13
Blaze: Working Women, Public Leaders
Phyllis Shillito, a pioneer in design education, had
a 25 year career with the NSW Department of Technical
Education. The never-married Shillito trained generations
of students at the National Art School and the Shillito
Design School.
National Art School Staff c. 1933
Front row: Edgar Walters (on stool), unidentified, Phyllis
Shillito, Samuel Rowe, Rayner Hoff, Arthur D’Auvergne
Boxall, John Moorfield. Standing includes: Douglas Dundas,
Bob Gunter, Roy Davies, Ken Wood and Fred Leist.
Photographer unknown. National Art School Archive and Collection
For Holroyd High School Principal, Dorothy Hoddinott AO, this issue informed
her career choice:
I became a teacher … there are couple of reasons why. One was that it was a career
where I didn’t have to resign should I get married. And the other was it had equal pay—
only just—that only happened in 1963, and I started teaching in 1965.
The NSW Public Service (Amendment) Act, 1969 repealed restrictions concerning the
employment of married women in the Public Service. Today, laws disallow employers
to discriminate against people due to their marital or family status. No longer are women
required to give up their careers once they marry and/or have a family. Rather, it is an
individual decision based on personal circumstances. Perhaps it is Elizabeth Tydd, NSW
Information Commissioner, Chief Executive of the Information and Privacy Commission
of NSW and NSW Open Data Advocate, who best articulates how a combination
of professional and family responsibilities can be an asset in the modern workplace:
Working mothers are more flexible. They are more able to work around problems
than most people in the workforce. That agility, that flexibility, that responsiveness,
that having to look to other people’s needs while still keeping your eye on the end
point is pretty unique to the working mothers scenario.
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