Women and Leadership
I had to write a post to commemorate today - a day that I thought I may not see in my lifetime - with the investiture of Australia’s first female prime minister. One of my favourite photos is a part of this gallery where Julia Gillard is signing alongside our first female Governor General Quentin Bryce.
A good day for Australian libraries too, as we share with Kevin Rudd in his farewell speech comments about how proud we all are of libraries. Today he said : “I’m proud of the fact that new libraries are springing up right across the country, often in schools which have never had a library before in their lives, or in some places, have never had a new building built in their schools since the War.”
Slightly ironic that he was making this speech around the exact same time that Karen Bonanno from ASLA was booked to be in a parliamentary committee room making another public hearing witness session to the House of Representatives Inquiry into School Libraries and Teacher Librarians (with the hearing delayed of course due to today’s news). We look forward to continuing to work with the Government on ensuring that the school libraries being established and improved are made into truly useful and wonderful places and spaces of learning. Keep up-to-date with it here http://www.alia.org.au/schoollibraries/
As a female-dominated profession, in Librarianship we are very fortunate to have many female leaders amongst our ranks. Although some libraries take longer than others to get their first female librarian. But as we know, for many other professions and in politics, a woman in the job is rare. I know that with so many women as members of ALIA, you might share with me in acknowledging the significance of the bit of history that was made today.
ALIA will continue to work on our Advocacy with government to ensure that issues that relate to keeping a democratic society what it should be, will be a part of Australia’s future (including equality).
What a day.
Sue Hutley, ALIA Executive Director