achieving
Women take lead in 2012 Rhodes Scholars Class
Most of Australia’s nine 2012 Rhodes Scholars are now in England taking their places at the prestigious University of Oxford in studies ranging from global health to civil law. Among them are five women: Eleanor Bath, Lauren Dancer, Angela Darby, Rachel Paterson and Dr Amanda Rojek. Over 7,000 students have attended Oxford since scholarships were first offered in 1902, although women could only apply from 1977 – the year Carol Jay, Lynne Pressley and Elizabeth Woods were selected for Australia…
NAIDOC awards honour old and young
Outstanding Indigenous youths and Elders were honoured at the NAIDOC Awards ceremony in Hobart on 6 July. They included Margaret Lawton and Maureen Kelly who were named joint winners of the Female Elder of the Year award. Canberra student Sarah Bourke was named Scholar of the Year and netballer Vanessa Wilson was joint Sportsperson of the Year. Queensland artist Amanda Joy Tronc was also honoured for her winning NAIDOC poster featured during the week’s activities…
Gallipoli legend inspires young essayists
It was almost a clean sweep for girls in this year’s ANZAC themed Simpson Prize schools essay competition. They took out six of the eight state winners places and all but one of the runners-up. The winning girls Phyllida Behm, Maddison Turnbull, Emily Stewart, Taylor Joppich, Jessica Walch and Eleanor Lau joined Samuel O’Connor and Andrew Tran for the winners’ trip to Gallipoli for ANZAC Day services where they were escorted by two teacher chaperones (Joanne Bleby and Elizabeth McGinnis)…
New generation journalists win Walkley awards
Two young female journalists have been honoured at this year’s Walkley Young Australian Journalist awards. Gina McKeon won the Radio category for her news piece on ‘St Vincent’s Church in Redfern’ for FBi Radio, and Miranda Grant took out the Online category for her story ‘What’s keeping you going Grantham?’ for ABC Open. The awards recognise excellence in new generation journalists in five categories. Although missing out on the top Young Journalist of the Year prize (won last year by SBS video reporter Yaara Bou Melhem) six young women made this year’s 15-strong shortlist drawn from over 110 journalists aged 26 and under…
Anna Funder continues her winning literary streak
Melbourne-born author Anna Funder has won the 2012 Miles Franklin Literary Award for her debut novel All That I Am. It follows several other awards this year and puts her in good stead to take out the Prime Minister’s fiction prize next month. The award, established to advance high-calibre literature that represents Australian life, was created through the bequest of Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin – author of Australian classic My Brilliant Career. Funder was one of three women in the five-person award shortlist – a contrast to the female-free representation of 2011 – and becomes the 14th woman to win the award in the 54 years it has been presented…
Let’s talk Indigenous recognition!
National Reconciliation Week runs from 27 May to 3 June and bookends two important milestones for the country’s Indigenous people – the successful 1967 referendum that recognised Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the national census; and the 1992 High Court Mabo decision that legally recognised Indigenous land rights. This year’s theme is ‘Let’s Talk Recognition’ and to celebrate, GirlsGerms revisits the achievements and leadership of some of Australia’s Indigenous women…
Yes, women did play sport over summer!
Just in case you thought tennis was the only women’s sport played over the summer, here’s a rundown on some of the other female sporting achievements that happened over the last few months – in golf, hockey, sailing, cricket, iron woman, and winter sports to name a few…
Opals basketball olympic hopefuls announced
Australia’s Opals basketball squad has been announced with 24 of the country’s top players now vying for selection in the national team that will compete at the London Olympic Games. The list includes star players Lauren Jackson and Penny Taylor, veterans Suzy Batkovic, Kristi Harrower and Belinda Snell, and young talents Liz Cambage, Jenna O’Hea and Abby Bishop as well as several emerging players…
Sam Stosur wins her first tennis singles grand slam
Australia’s Samantha Stosur won her first singles grand slam tournamentat the US Tennis Open last month. Her 6-2, 6-3 win over 13-time grand slam champion Serena Williams comes six years after Stosur garnered her maiden doubles and mixed doubles grand slam titles and is a milestone for Australian women’s tennis – it is 31 years since Australia’s last woman (Evonne Goolagong Cawley) held a singles grand slam title and 38 since Margaret Court won the country’s last women’s US Open…
Cancer recovery through literature proves a winner for Brenda Walker
Literature professor, novelist and breast cancer survivor Brenda Walker won this year’s Kibble Literary Award for Women Writers for Reading by Moonlight – a memoir of her illness. It is her second Kibble win and comes a year after her mother, Shirley Walker, won the award for her own memoir The Ghost at the Wedding. Kristel Thornell’s historic fiction Night Street won the Dobbie Literary Award for a first-published female writer…
