Compiled by Diana Temple and Jean Weber
Centenary of Federation Council
Judi Moylan, Minister for the Status of Women, has written to WISENET and other 'Peak Women’s Groups' with information about this Council. It is to be chaired by Dick Smith; its two female members are Betty Churcher and Phoebe Fraser. A letter to the Sydney Morning Herald from the Women's Electoral Lobby expressed indignation that there are only two women in a council numbering 17.
A Community Grants Program is proposed and organisations such as WISENET are urged to consider contributing an event to 2001 celebrations.
National Women's Communication Network
A free service is offered by the Office of the Status of Women to establish and maintain a communication network between government, non-government and private women's organisations so that they may share information, ideas, contacts etc. All groups and individual women can access the internet site; a group which becomes a member gets a password and ID number to allow it to add information to the site and communicate with other members. WISENET has taken steps to join.
Teaching awards
Winners of the Women’s Information Service Teaching Awards in November 1997, sponsored by The Australian newspaper and OzEmail, include WISENET member Acram Taji of the Department of Animal Husbandry at the University of New England. Other women who won these awards are Miraca Gross of the University of New South Wales, in Education and Pearl Wyman of the University of Western Sydney for Indigenous Education.
Pam Elliott from the Maritime Discovery Centre and Double Helix, Tasmania, and Wan Ng from Glen Eira College, Victoria, shared the Shell Science Teachers' Award for Excellence for 1997.
Women’s Information Service
The Women's Information Service in Adelaide has a new home in Station Arcade, 136 North Terrace, Adelaide.
Australian Institute for Women’s Research and Policy
Is newsletter, AIWRAP-UP, reports on activities in Queensland. Director Rosemary Pringle describes promoting reconciliation by way of a seminar held at Griffith University on 27 November 1997 titled 'Reconciling Women and Whiteness in the Academy'.
Women into Politics
WiP is an Australian coalition of women’s organisations, including WISENET, which was formed in 1992 to work towards increasing numbers of women in Parliaments and public life. The Women into Politics annual dinner in Sydney in November 1997 was addressed by Dr Marilyn Waring of Massey University, Auckland NZ, who describes herself as a political economist, author, farmer and women’s rights activist.
Heart Foundation award
The prestigious Irene Martin Kardos Research Award was recently won jointly by Dr Wendy Jessop of the Cell Biology Group of Sydney's Heart Research Institute; Dr Natalie James, National Heart Foundation Research Fellow and Professor Klaus Schindhelm of the University of New South Wales.
Friends of Museums
Carol Serventy is well known for her work, with her husband Vincent Serventy, on educational books and films about Australia’s wild heritage. Carol was elected in 1997 as President of the World Federation of Friends of Museums. Long associated with the Australian Museum, Carol draws attention to the fact that Australia's museums attract nearly 17 million visitors per year, more than attendance at most sports.
Outstanding Woman of the Year in a Non-Traditional Area
Gender Matters, the newsletter of the National Centre for Women based at Swinburne Institute of Technology in Melbourne, reported on these awards for 1997. Chinese educated Xiaoling Lin, who is manager of Carbon and Materials Technology at Comalls research Centre in Victoria, won the major award. An engineering graduate and metallurgist, she leads a research staff of twenty-eight.
Winners in the other categories were: Tracey Bedson, a TAFE student an employee of Ford in Geelong; Caroline Cave, apprentice fitter/machinist/ welder at Weipa on Cape York; Emily Martin, a Bachelor of Applied Science in Rural Management, in Queensland; Kristyn Summers, an electrical and electronic engineer of James Cook University Queensland; Debbie Miller, a geologist and Superintendent Technical Services at Blair Athol Coal Project in Queensland ; Veena Sahajwaller a senior lecturer in Material Science and Engineering at University of new South Wales; and Janice Raleigh who is a Victorian dairy farmer.
Directory of Female Tradespeople
Being developed in Victoria by "InCompany", founded partly by the Victorian Women’s Trust. For information, phone/fax Julie 03 9387 6978 or Sally 03 9481 7194, sal@infoxchange.net.au
Other states please copy.
Girls’ School Leaving Exam Results
The Higher School Certificate results in New South Wales have again, as for the past several years, shown high performance by girls compared with boys. Girls topped 114 courses and boys 50. Girls were ahead not only in English and Languages, which is traditional, but also in high level Maths (4-unit and 3-unit), Biology, Chemistry, Geology, but not Physics. There have been press comments -- 'an imbalance of this magnitude between girls and boys is fundamentally unhealthy' (Headmaster of St Andrews Cathedral School) -- a state of crisis in boys' education is seen. In all Australian states, more girls than boys are candidates. The increasing scholastic dominance of girls is described as worldwide and continuing. When will this translate into a better deal for women in the workplace?
Website for anti-discrimination and sexual harassment
The NSW Anti-discrimination Board now has a website which provides information on how to deal with discrimination and sexual harassment. It is http://agd.nsw.gov.au/adb/
Although this is New South Wales based, residents of other states can find the heading 'Advice for those who live outside NSW' and obtain directions as to who to contact.
Digital Women
Sadie Plant, director of the Cybernetic Culture Unit of the University of Warwick, UK has released a new book, titled Zeros + Ones: Digital Women + the New Technoculture.
Plant attempts to demonstrate that women have always used technology. You won't find victims here, rather women who were empowered by the technological innovations in their lives. What emerges is a picture in which women are neither bystanders nor victims but are in many ways the unsung heroes of technical innovation. Plant argues that such new scientific paradigms as chaos theory and new technologies such as virtual reality will render obsolete society's presumption of male superiority and ultimately erase the distinctions between the sexes.
International Women’s Development Agency
IWDA is a small agency, but through their advocacy and overseas programmes (supported by donations) they have a huge impact on the lives of women and their families. IWDA always needs unpaid workers and (tax-deductible) donations. Contact IWDA at PO Box 1680, Collingwood VIC 3066, Phone 03 9417 1388, Fax 03 9416 0519.
March 6
UnifemAustralia Inc, the United Nations Development Fund for Women, is to have its annual Breakfast at the Wentworth Hotel in Sydney. Contact: 02 9267 5222.
March 7
IWDA (International Women’s Development Agency) is holding an International Women’s Day Breakfast at the Sydney Hilton. Contact Deborah Cooper on 02 9314 0173 or movers@loom.net.au
May 2–10
National Science Week. Contact: Alison Walker, Coordinator, PO Box 193, Civic Square, ACT 2608, phone 02 6205 0281, fax 02 6205 0638, email science.week@anu.edu.au
June 30–July 2
Melbourne. Women and Human Rights, Social Justice & Citizenship: International Historical Perspectives. Contact: Prof Patricia Grimshaw, History Dept, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3052.
July 14-18
University of Technology, Sydney. Winds of Change: Women and the Culture of Universities, International Conference organised by the Women’s Forum. Contact Carol Watson, HERDSA Office, PO Box 576 Jamison ACT 2612, tel, 02 6253 4242, email herdsa.office@anu.edu.au