The Australian Women's Register

Misha Schubert’s career in journalism began in 1998 at the Australian as a general news reporter, going on to become its Victorian political reporter. In 2001-02 she moved to New York, acquiring a masters degree from Columbia University’s journalism school to complement her BA from RMIT. She moved to Canberra in 2002 where she covered indigenous affairs and health for two years before joining The Age as a federal political correspondent. On parliamentary sitting days, she writes a political gossip column, House on the Hill. She is also a regular panellist on ABC television’s Insiders program.

Misha has also developed a profile in the community sector. She was a founding chairperson of Girlstorey, a drop-in centre for young women in Melbourne, and is a life member and former president of YWCA Victoria. She was a republican delegate at the 1998 Constitutional Convention in Canberra.

From September 2012 until August 2015 Misha was the Director of Communications for Recognise, the movement to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in our Constitution. In September 2015, Misha took up the position of Director of Strategic Communications for Universities Australia.

Jean Cullen was an illustrator and humorous artist who worked for Smith’s Weekly in the period 1941-1950. She also created the teenage cartoon character ‘Pam’ for the Brisbane Courier Mail , a character that Marie Horseman continued to develop after Cullen took her own life in 1950.

In 1945, Cullen published an adult illustrated book that was quickly banned called Hold that Halo, or, How to lose it in ten easy lessons. The comic narrated the trials and tribulations of a young woman during the second word war and was a stark commentary on the sexual double-standard as it applied to women.

Betty Paterson and her sister Esther were prodigies born into the elite of Melbourne’s bohemian set. Father (Hugh) and uncle (John Ford) were both artists and her first playmates were her neighbours, the children of Frederick McCubbin.

Art impinged upon every facet of her life throughout its entire course. Her Art Deco cartoons were published regularly in magazines such as The Bulletin and Aussie. Her illustrated interpretations of ‘permissive’ 1920s society resonated with those she depicted – she became artist-by-appointment to the flappers.

Betty Paterson married twice, and had one child, a daughter, Barbara.

Grace Cossington Smith had her first solo exhibition in 1928, and her work was reproduced in Art in Australia. She painted landscapes, streetscapes, and native flowers as well as interior paintings. Between 1932 and 1977, she held eighteen solo exhibitions, and in 1973 the Art Gallery of New South Wales held a retrospective exhibition of her work.

After a short teaching career, Christina Stead travelled to Paris for study, then to London. She returned to Australia in 1969 after many years abroad to take up a fellowship at the Australian National University. In 1974 she returned to live in Australia permanently.

In 1921 at Melbourne’s Theatre Royal, Gladys Moncrieff performed the role of Teresa in Maid of the Mountains to great popular acclaim. After travelling through America and Europe for further training, she returned to Australia to play the title role in Rio Rita. Moncrieff made numerous popular recordings and sang on radio. She was featured on the Macquarie broadcasting network in the ‘Gladys Moncrieff Show’.

Mildred Muscio’s association with the New South Wales National Council of Women began in 1922. She became press secretary of the Council before serving as president from 1927-38, including a term as federal president.

Daughter of the Swiss born Elise Lehmann, Louise Lovely began her stage career at the age of eight, playing Eva in Uncle Tom’s Cabin at the Lyceum in Sydney. She subsequently appeared in many stage and screen productions. In 1912, Louise moved to Hollywood with her husband Wilton Welch and became a star, cast in at least 24 films for Universal Studios and nearly a dozen western films for Fox Studios. She returned to Australia in 1924.

Louisa Meredith sailed for Sydney with her husband Charles in 1839. A keen naturalist, she collected plant, insect and seaweed specimens in Tasmania and was a member of the Tasmania Royal Society. She published several volumes of poetry as well as her accounts of colonial life, and often illustrated these works herself.

May Holman was the first Labor Party woman parliamentarian in Australia. Representing the Legislative Assembly seat of Forrest, she was also the first Labor woman MP to serve more than ten years in parliament.

Dorothy Gordon Jenner was an Australian actress, scriptwriter, newspaper columnist and controversial radio personality.

Biographical accounts of the early acting career of Dorothy Gordon are laden with contradictions. Due to a lack surviving archival material, what we do know about Gordon comes from her own memoirs which are criticised for being inconsistent and exaggerated. It does appear, however, that she did have a career in film, in Australia and abroad, which finished sometime in 1927. She then turned her hand to journalism.

After two unsuccessful marriages, Dorothy Jenner travelled to London in 1927, where she began a column for the Sydney Sun under the name of ‘Andrea’. Hers was a gossip column, keeping Australian audiences updated on celebrity comings and goings in London and New York. After 1940, she toured south-east Asia as a war correspondent. She was captured by the Japanese in Hong Kong and spent nearly four years in Stanley prisoner of war camp. From 1951, Jenner was writing for the Mirror. She later switched to broadcasting, working for 2UE, and pioneering talk-back radio on 2GB.

Irene Crespin was a micropalaeontologist. After graduating from the University of Melbourne in 1919, she worked for the Geological Survey of Victoria, describing macro and micro-fossils found in sediment on the Mornington Peninsula. In 1927 she was appointed assistant palaeontologist to Frederick Chapman in the Geological Branch of the Department of Home Affairs. In 1936 she succeeded him as Commonwealth palaeontologist at half his salary and was located in Canberra.

A member of the League of Women Voters, Mascotte Brown stood as a candidate in the Legislative Assembly seat of Malvern at five Victorian state elections which were held in 1947, 1950, 1952, 1955 and 1958. She stood as an Independent Liberal candidate at all elections except 1955 when she represented the Victorian Liberal Party.

Journalist, foreign correspondent and rock music expert Lillian Roxon enjoyed a long and varied career before her untimely death in New York at the age of 41. She was the first full-time female employee at the Sydney Morning Herald‘s New York office, and her Rock Encyclopedia was published in 1969.

Pat Holmes is widely recognised as the first woman to have worked as a full-time photojournalist on an Australian newspaper. Initially working as a studio portrait photographer in Sydney, Holmes took a position as press photographer for The Sun during WW2. In 1946, Holmes produced the iconic photograph New Year’s Eve, Kings Cross.

Florence Rodan, a member of the League of Women Voters and its president from 1961-63, stood for the Victorian parliament three times; in 1945, 1952 and 1955. She stood as an Independent in the Legislative Assembly seat of Borung at the 1945 state election, represented the Australian Labor Party in the Legislative Assembly seat of Camberwell in 1952 and the seat of Balwyn in 1955.

Joan Child was the first female member of the Australian Labor Party to be elected to the federal Parliament in the House of Representatives as Member for the seat of Henty in 1974. She lost her seat in the 1975 general election, but regained it in 1980. She became the first female Speaker of the House of Representatives in 1986, holding the position until she resigned in 1989. She remained the only female speaker of the house until October 2012, when Anna Burke was appointed to the position.

Joan Child retired from parliament in 1990 when the seat of Henty was abolished in an electoral redistribution. She was appointed Officer of the Order of Australia in June 1990.

She died on February 23, 2013 at the age of 91. In a statement from Prime Minister Julia Gillard, on the occasion of her passing, Joan Child was remembered as a pioneer and an inspiration. ‘As a confirmed true believer, Joan never forgot who had put her into politics or why. She was a powerful voice for the needs and rights of women, especially working women and women doing it tough.’

Janet Powell stood unsuccessfully as a candidate for the Australian Democrats Party in the Legislative Assembly seat of Rodney at the Victorian state election, which was held on 5 May 1979. She was a candidate again at the 1985 state election, when she stood for the Legislative Council province of Central Highlands.

She was elected to the Senate of the Parliament of Australia in 1986 as a representative for Victoria. A member of the Australian Democrats and leader from 1990-1991, she resigned from the party in 1992. She served as an Independent until 1993.

In 2004 she joined the Australian Greens Party and stood as a candidate in the November 2006 Victorian State election for the Eastern Metropolitan Region in the Legislative Council.

After leaving Parliament, Ms Powell focused on volunteer leadership roles in health, women’s issues and services for the disadvantaged.

Powell passed away in September 2013, survived by four children and one grandchild.

She’s Game: Women making Australian sporting history is a virtual exhibition that highlights the achievements of Australian women who have contributed to Australian sporting life and culture. Athletes, coaches, administrators, journalists and volunteers are recognised for the important roles they have played in Australian sporting history.

Popi Sidiropoulos gained the distinction of becoming the first Greek speaking hairdresser in Melbourne in 1957. She migrated to Australia from Greece in 1957 and on gaining her Hairdressing diploma in Melbourne in the same year, she established her business at home, ‘just below Collingwood railway station’ and worked there for ten years.

Michelle Grattan was the first woman to become editor of an Australian metropolitan daily newspaper. Specialising in political journalism, she has written and edited for many significant Australian newspapers. Her long and distinguished career in journalism began in 1970 at the Melbourne Age, where she enjoyed a stellar career as their political editor. She left that paper (for good!) in 2013. .

Patricia Riggs became a cadet journalist on the Macleay Argus at the age of thirty-five. She went on to win two Walkley awards for provincial journalism and eventually became editor of the newspaper. She was a fighter for Aboriginal advancement long before the cause was a popular one.

After retiring as editor, she became a Shire Councillor in 1983, a position she held until 1991.

Helen McCue is best known as a co-founder of Rural Australians for Refugees (2001). A trained nurse educator she worked with the World Health Organisation (WHO) in the Middle East in 1981, was then seconded to the United Nations Relief and Works Organisation (UNRWA) in Lebanon, and subsequently worked as a volunteer in refugee camps in Beirut 1982-83. In 1984 she co-founded the trade union aid body Australian People for Health Education and Development Abroad (APHEDA), and was its first Executive Director and regional adviser in South Africa and the Middle East until early 1994. She founded the Women Refugee Education Network (1996) and the Wingecarribee Community Foundation (2001), and was involved in the establishment of Wingecarribee Reconciliation Group (1997).

A member of the Australian Labor Party, Nicola Roxon was elected to the House of Representatives for Gellibrand, Victoria, in 1998, and was re-elected in 2001, 2004, 2007 and 2010. She became Shadow Minister for Health in 2006 and on the election of the Labor Government in November 2007, she became the Minister for Health and Ageing.

She continued to hold that portfolio in the Gillard Labor Government until she was appointed Attorney-General on December 14, 2011; the first woman to hold the position in the Australian parliament.

She resigned from the portfolio in February 2013 and retired from parliament on 5 August 2013.

Women’s Cricket Australia and the Australian Cricket Board joined forces in 2003 to become a single governing body for cricket in Australia. The new organisation was formed after a two year transitional period and was called Cricket Australia.

Jill Reichstein is Chair of the Reichstein Foundation and an advocate of social change philanthropy. Mentor to many Australian women philanthropists, she is a member of the Committee of Management for Changemakers Australia and has served on the boards of the Melbourne Community Foundation, the Foundation for Young Australians, the Community Support Fund Community Advisory Council, the Trust for Young Australians, the Mietta Foundation, the Koori Heritage Trust, and Philanthropy Australia.