Blaze e-catalogue - Catalog - Page 9
Foreword
Blaze: Working Women, Public Leaders is a new exhibition project produced by NSW State
Archives. The exhibition engages with the finding that a significant leadership gap continues
to exist between women and men in public life. Through its thoughtfully curated study
of a selection of women working in different policy fields from the 1860s to the present,
Blaze sheds insights into the challenges and opportunities that women have faced building
professional careers in the NSW public sphere.
Historical research within and beyond the State Archives Collection has uncovered stories
of women whose achievements have, until now, been ‘lost’ to history. In other cases,
new chapters have been written into the stories of well-known trailblazers. For these women
who took on public sector roles that were seen to be the ‘natural’ domain of men, theirs is a
story of courage and dogged persistence in the face of attitudes and beliefs that questioned
their ability and right to a career.
Alongside stories of women from NSW’s past, Blaze presents the perspectives of fourteen
women working in the public sphere today. Their foundational experiences, career journeys
and ideas about leadership are diverse and unique.
Blaze aims to contribute towards current discussions concerning women in leadership roles
and to generate a greater awareness of the trail that women in NSW’s past blazed for those
who followed. This unique exhibition melds past and present, and in doing so, enables greater
clarity in the future thinking about women, the public sphere and leadership.
I trust that you will enjoy Blaze: Working Women, Public Leaders, and in particular, the new
insight that it provides in understanding the histories of women and the story of NSW.
Anne Henderson AM
Chair
NSW State Archives Board
9
