June 3, 2019

Gallery features top working women

UOW hosts Blaze: Working Women, Public Leaders from 3 June

Two generations ago, women in the public sector were faced with an unenviable choice between pursuing a career and having a family: those who wished to marry or have children were forced to resign.

Blaze: Working Women, Public Leaders, a touring exhibition from the NSW State Archives that explores the challenges negotiated by women in the public sector since 1860 and the heights they have reached, will open at University of Wollongong’s Library on Monday, 3 June.

While structural discrimination no longer exists in the public sector, only one third of senior executive roles are occupied by women.

“Despite policies and laws, why is that still the case?” curator Dr Penny Stannard said.

“The exhibition engages with issue of underrepresentation of women in leadership.

“It highlights the work women in the past have done to advance opportunities for women now.

“We have asked the women featured in the exhibition, ‘When have you really had to back yourself?’

“The women of the past were facing discrimination and antagonism, the women of today have had to back themselves.”

The careers of 14 present-day women of influence are juxtaposed with the careers of historical figures in the exhibition.

It features Narelle Underwood, the first woman appointed to the role of NSW Surveyor General in 2016, a role that has existed since 1787; and pioneers such as Lucy Osburn, who was appointed as the first female superintendent of a NSW health facility in 1868; and architect Marion Mahony Griffin, whose creative partnership with husband Walter Burley Griffin in designing Canberra in 1911, was almost invisible.

Summer camp for Far West Aboriginal children, La Perouse, NSW Government Printing Office, 1955, published in Down Magazine, 1957, Vol. 6, No. 5

UOW’s Library Services Director Margie Jantti said the exhibition will be right at home in a University which strives to support women in leadership. Just last year, The Australian Institute of Training and Development commended UOW for delivering Australia’s Best Women in Leadership Development Program.

“We are very much looking forward to celebrating trailblazers past and present who have strived to carve out roles for women of the future,” Ms Jantti said.

The exhibition is open daily from 3 June to 29 July, between 10am and 5pm, in the Panizzi Gallery at UOW Library.

All are welcome to the launch on Wednesday, 12 June, from 1.45pm to 2.30pm.

At the launch there will be presentations by researcher Dr Frances Laneyrie, NSW State Archives Collections, Access and Engagement Director Martyn Killion, and Senior Curator Dr Penny Stannard.

Photo caption: National Art School staff, 1933, photographer unknown, National Art School Archive and Collection