Women's History Month: Patty Jansen

Gillian asked me to write this post, and I said yes before I had fully appreciated that it would involve me talking about myself, about being female. I have to admit that this is not a subject I like talking about.

Yet, I realise that in the (too many) years since I finished high school, a lot has changed. That year, when I and my class mates applied for whatever course took our fancy, I was informed that I couldn't apply for the commercial airline pilot course, since they didn't accept girls. That changed the next year, but by that time I had moved on.

( To find out Patty's choices, please read on. )

Quantum Poets

I meant to post earlier, but the last few days caught up with me in a whoosh and I have done some quality resting this afternoon.

Today we talked more about scientific method and about hypotheses and testing them and about the need to challenge intuition and test that, too, and about finding the things that influence experiments and affect results. I gave the worst explanation of the difference betwen mass and weight that I have ever given in my whole life, but one of my students stepped in and sorted it.

Women's History Month: Rachel Kerr

About five years ago my mother and I were watching the television program “Grumpy Old Women” and when Germaine Greer came on, my mother looked at me and said, “You know, she reminds me of you.”

I was momentarily speechless. (Anyone who knows me will know how rare that is.) “Do you mean I’m a grumpy old woman?”

“Yes” replied my mother. “You’ve just started a bit early. Well, you do have a lot of opinions and so does Germaine Greer.”

Well, doesn’t that take all? I thought that my mother would have noted that Germaine and I both have unmanageable and curly hair (hair with character, I prefer to call it), we both wave our hands about, neither of us sounds sufficiently Ocker, and my little feminist heart has belonged to Germaine for decades.

I am not kidding about the decades part. Back in the 70s there was a fad for sewing amusing coloured patches onto one’s jeans or jacket. The first one I remember was when I was about seven or eight years old and sure enough, I had chosen a feminist symbol. I loved that patch. It moved from one pair of jeans to the next as I grew up but when I was about eleven, my tastes changed and I wanted to be a bit more girly (while retaining the right to climb trees and be a tomboy if I felt like it). I believed honestly that girls were every bit as good as boys and in fact, I was a darn sight better than all of them in the classroom. I believed I could take on any career I wanted to and I would perform as well, if not better, than men in the same job.

I celebrate my mother today, Marie Kerr. OK, I’m still a bit bemused about the Germaine Greer comparison although my hair is becoming more and more like Germaine’s as the years pass. Marie is the one who showed me how women could run businesses, work in broadcasting, become a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, be a CEO, be vitally interested in their families, love and encourage their kids, manage finances, plan for the future, be organised and have fun. She never told me I couldn’t do a particular job and sometimes even today she has a higher opinion of my abilities than I do. Her belief is not centred on the gender agenda but rather a belief in ability regardless of gender.

As I bring up my daughter, I hope I will be able to show a similar belief in her. Granted, quite a few friends think it’s amusing that I, quiet follower of second wave feminists, have produced a daughter with an almost unhealthy obsession with pink dresses, sparkles, fairies and princesses. I don’t mind really. I think that Princess Pink is a secret pirate and you should see her wield a sabre. The world is in safe hands, Mum.


Rachel Kerr (tilleycat2000 at yahoo.com) is a singing teacher, program manager at a university, and mother of Princess Pink. She is an alumnus of the Australian National University and the University of Canberra. She enjoys writing, performing, and attending the theatre.

(no subject)

I just realised we're halfway through Women's History Month and I've had 22 guests on my blog and all of them have been wonderful. More to come, just as good (although I admit - and would not *dream* of dropping hints) that I'm still waiting on the posts for a few of the guests-to-come.

And I actually came online to do something and cannot remember what. If you feel impelled to suggest something, please remember my tender sensibilities.

I've had lots of suggestions of steampunk written by women, and veen given details of a website that contains still more. I shall put that list up here sometime next week, since the rest of this week is just a bit impossible. I want to read all the ones I haven't read, but I don't have time! I really need one of those t-shirts that say "So many books, so little time."