It’s been a busy few weeks. On top of the general goings on here at the Centre I have put my hand up to be an Equal Pay Ambassador, in an official capacity that is. I have been an Equal Pay Ambassador all my working life – now, I am assuming the official title.
When I was told that I would be officially called an Equal Pay Ambassador I freaked out a bit. The word Ambassador conjures images of statesmen like Alexander Downer and Kim Beazley. I think of them going to formal receptions, wearing ridiculous clothes, and all in all not doing very much that’s very important, most of the time.
Hey, and let’s face it, I am no statesman, or stateswoman for that matter. I am just one of 200,000 undervalued and underpaid community workers. I am one woman of about 180,000 women in the sector. I am one, we are many, and we, ordinary community workers are about to do an extraordinary thing.
We are lodging a court case. We are lodging a test case. We are going to prove that we are undervalued and we are going to prove that we are underpaid. We are going to make history not just for us but for all working women in this country.
One of my first duties in my role of Equal Pay Ambassador will be to go to Canberra to launch our case with the stateswoman of all stateswomen, Julia. That’s Gillard, Julia, Deputy Prime Minister!
It’s kind of exciting and inspiring when you think of it… maybe I am, after all, a stateswoman.
Browse Timeline
Comments ( 1 Comment )
You make a great Ambassador, Maree, so don’t feel that you are out of your league at all!
Part of the struggle we have as women is that even we still think of men when we think of “high status” roles. There have been women as ambassadors (only one from Australia by the look of this information: http://www.guide2womenleaders.com/index.html) and we make wonderful “stateswomen” – just look at Julia!
We still need to learn to get images of women into our imagination for these roles.
Kate added these pithy words on
Mar 14 10 at
7:33 pm
