Profile written by Margarita Bowen
WISENET Journal No. 18, March 1989, p. 20-21
Armidale author and sociologist Margaret Ann Franklin was named Zonta's 1986 Woman of Achievement. She was nominated for the award by the Armidale New South Wales branch of the Australian Federation of University Women, on the basis of 'her help in raising the status of women locally, nationally and internationally'. Speaking at the award dinner, President of Armidale Zonta International, Kathleen Brewster, said 'One of Zonta's main aims is improving the status of women, and Margaret Franklin in her research and her published work, has spent many years aiming to achieve recognition for women in all areas of society'.
Margaret has been involved both actively and in her writing in the causes of Aboriginals, women in the Church and Chinese women. Her first book Black and White Australians, which examines institutional racism in Australian society, was published in 1975.
In 1979 her interest in Aboriginal history and involvement with the Movement against Uranium Mining alerted Margaret to the disastrous impact of the Maralinga tests on Aboriginal health. Her paper 'Victims of the red dust: a report on radioactivity at Maralinga', reported in the Aboriginal publication Identity, helped raise consciousness on an issue that has since gained international attention. Margaret's edited book Tbe Force of the Feminine: Women, Men and the Church, launched in May 1987, is provoking discussion both inside and outside the church in Australia.
Margaret describes herself as 59 years young. She finds she has far more energy and sense of purpose these days than fifty years ago when she was trying to be her mother's pretty ballerina and her father's clever daughter, or forty years ago when she was studying to be a lawyer but keeping an eye out for a husband, or even thirty years ago when she was struggling to be both an ideal mother and a novelist.
Although Margaret has a degree in law, her academic career did not begin until she moved to Armidale in 1968. She found there was no government funded legal service for Aborigines and set about to organise, throughout northern NSW, a group of solicitors who were prepared to act on behalf of Aborigines without charging fees.
This brought her in touch with the sociologist Frances Lovejoy and she helped Frances organise a tutoring scheme for Aboriginal school children. In turn Frances encouraged Margaret to enrol as a mature-age student in sociology at the University of New England. She graduated in 1976.
Invited to apply for a tutorship after graduation, Margaret believed that a rule later adopted by the University of New England to limit tutors' terms to six years would not apply to her. However when the university faced a financial crisis her contract was not renewed. By this time Margaret as a full time tutor was also giving specialist lectures on Aborigines in courses on Ethnic Relations and Sociology of Medicine.
It was not until she was interviewed for a survey of women by NENWAW -- the newly formed New England and North West Association for Women -- who were supporting a successful action for discrimination against the university, that Margaret realised she had been exploited. Not only was her salary and status not commensurate with her workload, but, in addition, no-one had ever advised her to obtain a higher degree to ensure that she could continue her academic career. The university was even unwilling to allow her to retain an official connection and it took a 2 year struggle for her to become an honorary research associate.
Margaret now tutors on women's issues throughout the New England region for the Department of Continuing Education, but works mainly from home. She enjoys being married to philosopher R.L. Franklin and shares with him a deepening interest in transcendental meditation. She has enjoyed growing with her husband who is also a committed feminist. She also has 4 children.
Her current projects and activities are manifold. She is writing a book with anthropologist Isobel White on the problems of delivering health care to Aborigines. Their aim is to assist medical workers and government policy makers by providing a readable overview of the extensive technical literature written by experts, few of whom have an adequate grasp of the overall problem.
Another book on women and the church edited by Margaret with Ruth Sturmey Jones, has been published by Allen and Unwin.
Margaret is also president of the Armidale branch of the Australia-China Friendship Society, which she helped found. Her research is well advanced for a book on the status of Chinese women since the revolution. Her report for WISENET on the Chinese pagoda of women in science (issue # 8) resulted from a trip in 1986, where she led an Australian women's delegation.
Margaret calls herself a late developer. She is grateful to the women's movement for raising her consciousness and hopes through her work to help other women to realise their potential.