Editor’s letter: from the desk of The Weekly’s Kim Doherty
Recently, I was honoured to be asked to be godmum to dear friends’ beautiful twins: a little girl, Francesca – “Frankie” – and a little boy, Angus. They are an adorable, healthy, bright and energetic pair, both blessed with good health, amazing parents and to be born in our lucky country. (If you ever need reminding how lucky our kids are, read our story on page 90.)
Yet it came to me with a jolt that, statistically speaking, if things don’t change, Frankie will do better at school, but go on to earn around 20 per cent less than Gus for doing the same job. She will be much less likely to hold positions of influence and leadership, and is more likely to face financial stress in her old age. Why, in our educated, blessed country, have we not sorted this out for our daughters – and what can we do?
We at The Weekly feel our responsibility to the next generation of Australian women keenly. It’s all very well to blame politicians, men, or the world at large, but surely as the elders and women in charge now, the onus is on us to step up for our daughters and grand-daughters.
This is why The Australian Women’s Weekly, with our friends at Qantas, launched our Women of the Future Awards in 2013. Each year, we find a crop of inspiring young Australian women and try to support their dreams by offering scholarships that include financial bursaries (totalling more than $100,000), professional networks and support.
Last year’s Judges’ Choice winner, Georgia Richards, 23, from Bulimba, Queensland (pictured, right), has just been accepted into the University of Oxford to do her PhD. “I am absolutely over the moon and really could not have made this happen without the support of the award,” she kindly told us. Georgia hopes her studies will enable her to help the one in five Australians – particularly military veterans – who suffer from chronic pain. Previous Women of the Future winners include Genevieve Clay-Smith, 29, who started the not-for-profit Bus Stop Films, which teaches people with an intellectual disability to produce films. There are also Marita Cheng, 28, a robotics engineer who makes socially useful inventions, and Susanna Matters, 29, a primary school teacher who set up a charity providing sanitary products to assist Kenyan girls stay in school.
We hope that, by encouraging young women like these and telling their stories, we’re creating another generation of role models – a ripple effect for the girls who come after them.
As for our 2017 finalists, they will have some of our nation’s most respected women as role models and contacts, including our inspiring patron, Dame Quentin Bryce, and our respected judges, the Hon Julie Bishop, Lucy Turnbull, Ita Buttrose, Lisa Wilkinson, Olivia Wirth and Yassmin Abdel-Magied. My heartfelt thanks to them all for generously offering their time, wisdom, networks and energy to support the next generation of Australian women.
And, lovely reader, we would be grateful for your help to drive change, too, for Frankie and all the young women who follow us. If you know a woman with potential, aged from 18 to 34, please encourage her to enter (the details are on page 44).
We hope that by sharing stories about these and other amazing Aussie women, young and old, every month, we bring a little inspiration to your life, too.
Kim Doherty, Editor-in-Chief
Email me at awweditor@ bauer-media.com.au Follow me on Twitter @KimEDoherty