TIMES THEY ARE A CHANGING
Dear Alice,
Well Teacher Mum is out tonight having dinner with five men she met on the Internet, Tris is asleep in bed and Elliott is somewhere north of here, sleeping over. I guess I’m feeling a bit lonely really. So I thought I’d write to you, who’s, errr… away for a year! Ahh well, there’s always the dog. He’s not much company though. Upside down in the lounge, legs rudely apart, snoring his head off.
It’s soooo cold here at the moment. In fact it was the coldest Sydney morning today for decades. Three degrees centigrade might not exactly be freezing, or even as cold as you were in England, but I could see Monte’s breath on our morning walk which is cold enough for me. Actually it was some 8°C below average, so hopefully this cold snap won’t last and we can get back to the dizzy heights of 11°C soon. Areas of the Western Suburbs did drop below freezing overnight and one woman even rang breakfast radio to announce both her bird baths were frozen!
Hey! Presumably you’ve heard…? NO, not that England are out of the World Cup cheated by a useless ref who couldn’t see an elephant if it was walking on top of him… No, I’m talking about Julia our new Prime Minister. I’m rather glad about this actually. Ruddy had not only lost the support of most of his Labor party but worse still, he’d pretty much lost the support of the whole country too. I think Julia can now win the next election for Labor and her appointment seems (by the polls anyway) to have been a very popular change to most people. The election will of course be held later this year some time so I guess we’ll have to organise a postal vote for you.
With Julia’s appointment as PM, some areas of Sydney now have the ‘full house’ with a woman in the top job in every hierarchical position from Local Lord Mayor, through to Sydney Lord Mayor (Clover Moore) through to State MP, through to State Premier (Kristina Keneally) through to Federal MP, through to Prime Minister (Julia Gillard) through to Governor of New South Wales (Marie Bashir) and up to and including the Governor-General (Ms Quentin Bryce). You could of course take it another stage forward and include the Queen or perhaps back a stage, and include the wife! Certainly this country though is at last acknowledging how capable women are and giving them the opportunities that could only be dreamt of by Emily Pankhurst (above), the English Political activist and leader of the Women’s Suffragette movement, back in 1903. Her commitment was an inspiration which climaxed in the ultimate cry for change namely throwing, and killing herself, under the King’s racehorse. She’d be pleased that her sacrifice began this change but probably saddened that it has taken so long.
The Government’s own website reports that ‘Today, women make up just over half of Australia’s total population. More women than men are now educated at secondary schools and universities, and more women than men graduate from university with bachelor degrees. In 2006, women accounted for 54.8 per cent of all tertiary education students.’
With more and more women now being appointed to corporate boards and some becoming excellent CEOs of major companies, Gail Kelly, Chief of Westpac comes to mind, we can be sure of if nothing else of a more balanced future. Some may argue further still and suggest that with women in the driving seat we might even get there sooner too. So ’twas then that last Wednesday many schoolgirls around the country rejoiced in unison as Julia’s appointment was announced. Regardless of politics, this sent a loud and clear message that women can without doubt go as far as their drive can take them. Over to you Miss Alice…
: D
