Everyone has an opinion on yesterday’s decision by Prime Minister Tony Abbott to appoint Prince Phillip a Knight of the Order of Australia alongside retired Air Chief Marshall Angus Houston.
We can presume that Abbott searched high and low for people to appoint as Knights and Dame.
He couldn’t find one Australian woman worthy of honouring with the highest honour, despite the Australia Day Council managing to find four female recipients of its highest awards.
Still yesterday, only one of the five people appointed AC and nine of the 41 people appointed AO were women. They are statistics that are nothing out of the ordinary, a reason why the Women’s Leadership Institute Australia actively encourages the nomination of women for these awards.
Women who do great things are all around us in business and in the community. Our failure to recognise these efforts and achievements is an uncomfortable reflection on our society.
I look to the women in my life who are excelling and defying norms, they can undervalue and marginalise themselves. Perhaps it is because of the high standard women are held to compared to men, or maybe it is because we raise girls to aspire to more ‘support’-style roles.
Whatever it is we can all take a stand and do more to value the women around us. Put the women you admire forward for awards and let them know they are inspiring you.
So next time Abbott reflects upon women in Australia to appoint Dame, he can start with this list and keep going:
1. Cathy Freeman: The sprinter has turned her attention to indigenous disadvantage and charitable endeavours, after a highly successful athletics career.
2. Justice Mary Gaudron: The first female Justice of the High Court failed to secure a job after graduating with the University Medal but rose to the legal pinnacle following an illustrious career as a barrister. She even fought the Equal Pay case for the Federal Government in 1972.
3. Dr Abigail Allwood: Described as extraordinarily brilliant and named a top-10 global scientific mind, Allwood is leading NASA’s search for life on Mars. At 41 she is getting us as close as we have ever been to the surface of another planet.
4. Erica Smyth: The first female chair of a listed company to appoint a female CEO is still a talking point, three years later. A geologist for BHP turned corporate player Smyth has a vision for resources and women.
5. Gail Kelly: Perhaps not an unsurprising suggestion, hopefully we won’t be waiting too long before another woman assumes the chief executive role at one of the big banks.
Who else would you include on this list?