By GRACE JENNINGS-EDQUIST
Guess how many women have landed on the moon? Been Bishops of the Church of England?
Headed up the University of Oxford? …Or Cambridge, or Stanford, or Columbia?
The answer? None.
The remarkable 100 Percent Men Tumblr is currently grabbing headlines across the internet for pointing out just that. It lists the (scarily plentiful) worldwide institutions or boards or panels or lists where women have never, ever, set foot.
Sadly, the moon is just the start.
The list– which is now six pages long and counting – is the brainchild of American writer Lydie DePillis. And while we were initially thrilled to see that Australia barely rated a mention, we later discovered – it wasn’t because we’re any more equal than anyone else. It turns out that Lydie has just forgot about us. Dammit.
So we went searching to bring you some Australian examples. Here are just a few instances of Australian places, positions and chairs where women are yet to make an appearance.
1. Chief Justices of the High Court of Australia.
The top court in the country now has a pretty solid three women (out of seven) on the bench but we are still waiting to see a woman appointed to the biggest role of those fancy swivel chairs.
And of the 50 judges who have ever been appointed to the court, a grand total of four have been women. FOUR.
2. Highest-Paid Chief Executive Officers.
Less than three per cent of the ASX top 200 companies have female CEOs.
So it’s probably not surprising that only one of Australia’s top 10 highest-paid CEOs, at last count, was a woman.
Gail Kelly of Westpac ranked fifth on the list, pulling in $8.6m in 2011.
She did it while raising triplets too. OMG. You go, Gail.
3. Secretary-General of the United Nations.
The Sec-Gen post, as the UN’s symbolic head, is kind of a big deal – but we’re still waiting for a woman to land the gig.
4. Leader of the Liberal Party or the National Party of Australia
Okay, we do have a female PM (although all that ‘misogynistic’ criticism she’s faced down is another story), and the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Julie Bishop, is also a woman. So progress is a-coming…. slowly.
But the Liberal Party (or indeed the National Party) have never been led by a woman.
I wonder how Tony Abbott would feel if it happened, given his view that women’s ‘aptitudes, abilities and interests are different for physiological reasons’…
5. Managing Director of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation… and Editor-in-Chief of The Age.
Neither of these mega media outlets have jumped aboard the lady-leader bandwagon.
6. Chancellors of the University of NSW, the Australian National University and Monash University.
Ditto on the lady-leader front.
7. Members of the Australian Club and Tattersalls Club (in Sydney)- and the Melbourne Club, the Athenaeum Club and the Savage club (in Melbourne).
These exclusive clubs are filled with many leather-bound books and smell like rich mahogany.
Unfortunately, if you have a vagina you still can’t be a member.
And yes, you’re not dreaming, it is 2013.
8. Heads of the Reserve Bank of Australia and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission.
The RBA issues banknotes and sets interest rates, while ASIC is Australia’s corporate regulator. They’re both pretty damn important to big business in Australia.
But their leadership? So far, entirely male.
Can you think of any other Australian boys clubs?
Grace Jennings-Edquist is a Melbourne-based journalism student and former lawyer whose everyday interests range from women’s rights to viewing an unreasonable amount of sloth pictures. You can follow her on twitter @gracie_je and find some of her other work here.
Top Comments
The insurance industry in Australia is an unashamed boys club. The wage gap is bigger than in any other industry and women are routinely treated as objects and second class citizens.
Do any women really want to be members of these old members clubs? This is a bit of a tired old argument that was big in the 90's. They're exclusive clubs, that by definition exclude! I'm sure they don't have any members that earn under $75,000, or Greens voters, or public transport users, but who cares it's their club! How many men are members of the CWA or the Crazy Cat Lady Club?
I agree that the rest of the examples of under representation of women are worrying, but they're not comparable to members clubs, and doing so really trivialises the issue.