Blaze e-catalogue - Catalog - Page 20
Introduction
The situation was similar for Ms McKay:
My mother had left school at 14, and she was a great believer in education,
and I think from age 5, if you’d asked me what I was going to do in life, I would’ve
said I’m going to university.
Many of the present Blaze women recall their experiences at university as being
a defining point in their lives, opening up a world of ideas and new experiences.
When Ms Hoddinott attended university in the 1960s she ‘got involved in lots and lots
of clubs and societies’ and through this learned new leadership skills. ‘I loved being
at university. It’s just an amazing environment’, remembers Dr Anderson, who was involved
in the Student Union. Dr Dearing’s lecturers inspired students as they navigated the
challenging and multi-faceted discipline of architecture.
For Ms Spring, university gave her an opportunity to excel in sport and to participate
in a wide range of activities:
I’d had that fabulous university experience that people had in the ‘80s. I joined
every single club in Orientation Week. I joined the Anarchists, the Bushwalkers,
and everything that you could find. University was the most fantastic experience,
meeting really wonderful and diverse people, particularly my classmates
at Women’s College, and many of who are still very good friends.
For Ms O’Loughlin in the 1970s, university was a ‘very engaging, exciting time’:
Whitlam had been elected while I was at university. Whitlam got dismissed.
It was all the Vietnam issues. But it was also women’s liberation. Women’s rights
were coming much more to the fore. Gay liberation was on the agenda, as was also
recognition of Indigenous rights. The issues I got involved with were very much
around politics, which led naturally to a great interest in policy and in government.
A prominent voice in advancing the status of women during the 1970s was Margaret
Whitlam (1919–2012). Employed by the NSW public health system as a social worker
in the mid-1960s, Mrs Whitlam was well-attuned to the issues facing women and their
dependents. The high profile she developed as her husband, Gough, pursued a political
career enabled her to make a significant contribution to public discussions around women
during the 1970s.
Rights movements and social activism had driven advancements for women’s equality
in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Rose Scott (1847–1925), Kate Dwyer
(1861–1949) and her sisters Belle (1864–1940) and Annie Golding (1855–1934) were
prominent activists who agitated for social reforms during this time. The Golding sisters
had founded the Women’s Progressive Association of NSW in 1901. It diverged from the
Womanhood Suffrage League which Rose Scott and Mary Windeyer (1836–1912) had
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