A lot has changed since most of our mums were born. It’s something we intuitively know to be true but what exactly does that mean?
Yesterday I asked my mum what changed most for women while she was growing up. She didn’t even need a minute to think. Her answer? No longer having to resign from your job when you got married.
She grew up seeing women’s careers and economic independence snuffed out the minute they tied the knot. It’s jarring to think about. And with women over 50 facing an average superannuation gap of around 47%, and older women becoming homeless at increasing rates – it’s an anachronism with a horrifying legacy.
Many of the advances that we now take for granted have been shockingly recent:
- 1943 was the first time a woman was elected to our federal parliament
- 1965 was the first year first nations women’s voting rights were recognised by every state and territory
- 1983 was the first year a woman had a child while serving in federal parliament
Our Mother’s Day celebrations often focus on our mum’s achievements in the home and family: what our mums have done to raise us. But rarely do they recognise the context they were doing it in.
It was only a year earlier than my mum’s example that women won the right to drink in public bars for the first time, and it would take a further 6 years after the government allowed married women to keep their jobs that they were granted equal pay for equal work under federal awards. It would be another 11 years before a woman had a child while serving in parliament.
A lot has changed. Thanks to those who’ve championed women’s rights, broken glass ceilings and pushed for reform, we’ve secured significant advances for women’s rights in Australia.
None of these changes came easily, and progress hasn’t been linear. The first woman was elected to the Australian federal cabinet years before my mum was even born. More than sixty years later, that number – of women with a seat at our government’s top decision-making table – was the same.
These structural inequality issues limited our mothers’ lives. They’re limiting ours right now, and at the current rate of progress they’ll still be limiting those of our loved ones for decades to come.
So this Mother’s Day, why not celebrate your mum in a different light. Celebrate her resilience in the face of these adversities; celebrate what she’s done to help fight for equality; celebrate what she’s done to help make our world a better place.
History isn’t something that happens, it’s something that’s made – and when it comes to women’s rights, unfortunately a lot of the story is still being written.
That’s why community campaigning group Fair Agenda have launched a range of Mother’s Day gift cards that track not only what’s changed for women since your mum was born, but also get behind writing some more history – with a donation to campaigns for women’s rights.
To find out more, and to learn what’s changed in the decades since your mum was born, check out this website.