Harris worked with the Australian kindergarten movement, joining the committee of the Collingwood Creche/Kindergarten in 1920, and becoming a member of the executive committee of the Free Kindergarten Union in 1933, assuming the vice-presidency from 1947-50. She was also a member of the Women’s Hospital Committee, and president from 1945-8, when the hospital was challenged by the coincidence of the post-war baby boom and a shortage of materials for redevelopment.
On her retirement in 1951, after 35 years’ service, Stuart fought successfully to obtain the same retiring allowance – six months’ full pay – that men received, rather than the half-pay allowance usually given to women. The determination she displayed set an example for other women to follow; after a long campaign, equal pay was implemented by the Post Office in the early 1960s.
Amy Rivett was a disciple of Marie Stopes and advocated birth control. Later she specialised in gynaecology. She and her brother Edward were partners in Brisbane in the 1920s and again in Sydney after World War II. As municipal medical officer in Brisbane she was in charge of the health of licensed prostitutes. Rivett was a foundation member of the Queensland Medical Women’s Society.
Ann Marshall lectured in geography at the University of Adelaide for over thirty years. She was heavily involved in successful campaigns against inner-city freeways in Adelaide.
Maori Ngati Maru, Ngati Awa and Ngati Pukeko; weaver, tailoress, community leader
In 1917 she began a pharmaceutical apprenticeship with Frank Brooks, studying by correspondence. Long hours worked during the 1918 influenza epidemic meant that her studies were put on hold until the emergency was over. In 1921 Ruth Webb passed her final examinations, reputedly achieving the top marks in New Zealand. Unable to register as a pharmacist until aged 21, she had to wait until March 1922 before she could officially use the letters MPS after her name.
Bell is the author or editor of ten books, including several significant monographs on Australian Aboriginal culture and numerous articles and book chapters dealing with religion, land rights, law reform, art, history and social change.
Through her teaching and writing, she did a great deal to popularize knowledge about Australian flora, to encourage domestic gardeners to include native plants in their gardens and to persuade a wider audience of the need for conservation measures. She published twelve books about Australian plants and teaching nature studies between 1938 and 1980, and contributed widely to scientific journals and reference books including The Australian Naturalist, Australian Wild Life, Australian Encyclopaedia and Science Wonders of Australia. She was also editor, at various times, of New Horizons in Education, Australian Wildlife and Wildlife Research News.
In 1942 she was seconded to the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) Women’s Association to establish a department, a recognition of her organisational and leadership skills. In 1943 she joined the Australian Red Cross field force.
Throughout the war journalists reported on Leigh’s travels and work. She served for a year providing occupational therapy in the 2/9th Australian General Hospital, in New Guinea, before being sent to the United Kingdom with a Prisoner of War (POW) reception unit. Here she was also in charge of the club for the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) ex-POWs. In 1945 she became senior superintendent and joined a POW reception unit in Singapore.
In Melbourne she joined the Catholic Women’s Social Guild (CWSG) a feminist organisation encouraging Catholic lay women to become publicly active and work towards equal rights for women. She was a member of the CWSG central organizing committee for three years and secretary for one year, and was influential in its modernisation.