On Monday a host of new entrants into the Order of Australia were announced to mark the Queen’s Birthday. Unfortunately, the country’s most prestigious honour system did little to celebrate women.
This year, the general division of the Order of Australia saw 519 new members appointed. Of those, 170 were women and 349 were men, meaning there were more than twice as many men honoured as women. In the most prestigious category – the Companion of the Order of Australia – the numbers were far worse. Of the eight Australians awarded this honour, only one was a woman.
This gender imbalance appeared at the nomination stage also. Of the 748 Australians nominated, only 225 were women. In each of these categories, women barely constitute 30% of the group, and in some cases they constitute as little as 12%.
This statistic is no exception – men have outnumbered women throughout the history of the honour system. In fact, a Fairfax analysis found that of the 15,000 appointments made over the last 14 years, men have consistently been honoured at twice the rate of women.
So where are the women? And why aren’t we honouring them?
This is the question women’s rights and Indigenous rights advocate Merle Thornton wants answered this year. Thorton was inducted as a Member of the Order of Australia on Monday, but she is disappointed to see that she was one of so few women appointed.
Thornton began her career as an advocate for women’s rights back in 1965, when she famously chained herself to the men-only public bar at the Regatta Hotel, creating a defining moment in feminist history. That same year, she founded the Equal Opportunities for Women Association. Later, she began campaigning for Indigenous rights as well as women’s rights and she was recognised for both in her Order of Australia appointment.
Thornton taught in universities when the marriage bar forced her to leave the public service. Later in life, she turned her attention to the arts, creating a name for herself as a writer and playwright. Her contribution to the arts was also honoured in her appointment to the order.
But Thornton’s advocacy for women did not stop with her appointment – shortly after receiving the honour she spoke out against the system’s exclusion of women.
“It is disappointing to see that again there are twice as many men as women, especially since the honours are by and large appointed for unpaid work, or for work outside of paid employment. You would expect women to be shining,” she said.
Her point is a pertinent one – it has long been understood that inequalities at work allow men to succeed in paid employment at faster and higher rates than women, but the persistent imbalance in the honours system shows that women’s talents are being overlooked in unpaid and voluntary work as well.
Thornton sees this as a significantproblem, particularly given the visibility and prestige of the awards.
“While this big imbalance exists it continues to feed the traditional idea of males in authority,” she said.
Thornton thinks the imbalance is partly a product of the nomination process.
“We need to educate the public on the rules and conditions of the award so that more people will nominate. I think it would be helpful to women if these rules were more widely known,” she said.
“I think women should take on a responsibility that their gender is recognised when appropriate. There are women who are simply not nominated when they are very suitable for nomination.”
Have you ever nominated a leading woman for the Order of Australia? Which women should be nominated in future?