Blaze e-catalogue - Catalog - Page 22
Introduction
founded in 1891, and focused on the push for women to be appointed to public roles such
as police, magistrates and Justices of the Peace. They and others including Annie Duncan
(1858–1943) publicly criticised government inaction, lobbied for changes to the Law
and made direct representations to government ministers. They were also employees
of the NSW Government, a situation when considered through the lens of today, appears
highly conflictual.
Firsts
Many of the past Blaze women were ‘firsts’—Annie Duncan, Belle Golding, Sarah Hynes,
Ida Leeson, Lillian Armfield, Pearl Gibbs, as well as Rosette Edmunds (1900–1956) and
Caroline Kelly (1899–1989). They pioneered roles in workplaces that had previously been
closed to women. As lone females in roles considered the ‘natural’ domain of men, each had
to navigate the prevailing assumptions and attitudes that were held not only in their places
of work, but within society about, their sex and their abilities. For Gibbs, the first female and
sole Indigenous woman appointed to the NSW Aborigines Welfare Board, these extended
also to race. By being the firsts, these women re-shaped the public sphere and paved the
path for others to follow.
Caroline Kelly was a key figure in the post war metropolitan
planning of Sydney as a social anthropologist with the
State Planning Authority of NSW. She introduced the world
famous anthropologist, Margaret Mead, to officials from
the NSW Housing Commission, which was developing large
estates in Campbelltown throughout the 1970s.
Untitled, photographer unknown, c. 1973
Jack Burke, Housing Commission Chairman (second
from left), Caroline Kelly (centre), Margaret Mead
(second from right).
Caroline Kelly Papers, 1909-1987, Fryer Library UQ, UQFL489
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