Honour a Woman

24/01/2020
When you peruse the honours list in the Australia Day Awards this year, make a mental note of how many women have been recognised. Then make a further mental note to ensure a woman you know is worthy of our country’s highest level of recognition is nominated in the future.
 
Women like those in the WOB network who we have featured in this newsletter. We all know that the contribution made by Australian women to Australian society is often undervalued. We may not know that since the Order of Australia was established in 1975, men have consistently received around 70% of the Australian honours. Much of this has to do with the fact that the ratio of men to women nominated is in the order of 2:1, which is further exacerbated by the fact we have so many honours in Defence, top civil servants and other male dominated leadership arenas. 
 
Women on Boards has successfully nominated, and supported nominations for women over the years and there is now a movement called ‘Honour a Woman’ which works to ensure 50% of nominees for honours are women. See https://honourawoman.com
 
Another worthy venture is the Australian Women's Archives Project (AWAP), established by the National Foundation for Australian Women (NFAW) in 2000 in conjunction with The University of Melbourne to build knowledge and recognition of the contribution made by women to Australia. 
AWAP is now an important and authoritative resource for information about the roles of women in Australian history. See https://www.womenaustralia.info/awap.html
 
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