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"What
does International Women's Day mean to you?"
Katherine
Henzell, International Women's Day Speech at Marrickville
Council Breakfast
9
March 2004
The right to vote is something we take for granted nowadays.
So much so that when it comes to elections we are ambivalent
about what party to vote for -
- Will it really change anything anyway?
- Aren't they all different versions of the same?
In a world of so much choice, isn't it a stretch that
we're also required to make a choice about which group
of boy-o's we elect to public office?
International Women's Day has over 90 years of history,
and at its inception in the early years of the 20th
century, women's suffrage and the right to participate
in public office were two of the key issues of the
women's movement - the right to have a voice, to
participate in shaping the nation and influencing
the national identity and rights and freedoms of our
citizens.
For me, International Women's Day is the opportunity
to remember the women of the past, from all countries,
who fought and who gave and risked their lives for
women's suffrage, and the right to participate in
making the decisions that affect us all.
It's also something I remember every time I go to
the ballot box - that this right I'm exercising was
not just handed to women on a platter - that not
all that long ago it had to be fought and won.
The fact that we fought hard for this in the first
place, and the fact that ultimately all decisions
affecting women's lives -
- our children's education
- access to healthcare and medical services
are ultimately political decisions, makes it
imperative for women to continue to raise their
voices and participate in the political process.
I am personally very passionate about our national
symbols - that part of government that identifies
to us as Australians WHO we are, and articulates
that identity abroad.
I don't believe that an elitist, patriarchal system
for determining Australia's Head of State is at
all relevant to our national identity. I don't
believe that Australians by and large agree that
our Head of State should be the male heir of a
particular family at the top of the British aristocracy
who only visits our country once in a blue moon, and
who and whose sons will always barrack for the English
team over the Australian team.
The Head of State in Australia is totally at odds
with who we are, and it needs to be changed. We
are not an elitist, class-based society and we are
big enough and mature enough to be able to choose
for ourselves, an Australian person to be our Head
of State.
The sad thing for me is that at the 1999 Referendum
on a republic (which was flawed for so many reasons),
women turned away in droves from the republican cause.
Why, when it is the most important issue that we can
ask ourselves about our national identity as
represented by our system of government?
Why did so many more men vote for a republic than
women? Why is the membership of almost every political
organisation, 80 or so years after women got the vote,
still so heavily skewed in favour of men?
The ARM formed the Women's Network in the wake of the
1999 Referendum as a way to:
- Nurture women's involvement with the republican movement
- Make sure that we counter any perception that the ARM is just a boys club with an unwritten "no chicks" rule.
We in the ARM and Women's Network firmly recognise
and honour the legacy of our suffragette sisters
and are passionate about changing the way our
identity is so inadequately reflected by our system
of government.
For me, International Women's Day is a time to
celebrate the struggle of the past, and celebrate
our continuing commitment and drive for change -
our drive for equality, for justice, and for women
to play an ever greater role in forging the future
of our society and the future of our country.
My dream is that, in the not too distant future,
we will have an Australian woman - an Aboriginal
woman - as our Head of State. It will be a powerful
symbol of how far we have come and how much we have
achieved.
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