@ossobuco,
ossobuco Howard Jacobson mentions Germaine Greer in his writings. Co-incidentally this article appeared in the Australian press this morning.
AAP January 20, 2011, 12:01 am
Four Australian women who have made their mark in advancing gender equality will be immortalised on a stamp.
Eva Cox, Elizabeth Evatt, Germaine Greer and Anne Summers will on Thursday join the exclusive ranks of great Australians to appear on a stamp.
The women will be presented with the Australia Post Australian Legends Award for 2011, which is given each year as part of Australia Day celebrations.
They have been awarded the honour for their roles in campaigning for women's equality.
All four women rose to prominence in the 1970s, addressing women's inequality in Australia and overseas in their writing, activism, judicial work and advocacy.
Controversial academic and author Ms Greer said she wished her father were alive to see it.
"It might have made up for some of the embarrassment I might have caused him, poor old darling," she said.
"My mother would have said, 'what is she doing on a stamp?'
"I'm delighted to be with three distinguished Australian women and not to be singled out as some sort of rara avis (rare person)."
Ms Cox, whose Jewish family fled Hitler's tyranny in Austria and arrived in Australia as a "refugee kid", was an early member of the Women's Electoral Lobby and involved in setting up the first federally funded after-school centre in 1973.
She directed the NSW Council for Social Service from 1977-1980 and devised the childcare policy used by the Hawke government.
She said the recognition was "terrific".
"All the ones that have been picked in this case have made a difference in a not-so-conventional way, and I think that's a really good lesson for people to understand - that there's lots of ways of making a difference," she said.
Ms Evatt was the first woman to preside over an Australian federal court.
The former chief judge of the Family Court said she hoped the award would increase people's knowledge and understanding of women's fight for equality.
"I think those of us involved in it would like to feel that we represent a whole larger group of women who have been in the same battle."
Journalist and author Ms Summers, who co-founded the first women's refuge in modern Australia, said she hoped it would encourage people to realise that the fight for women's equality was not over.
The Australia Post Australian Legends Award began 14 years ago when Sir Donald Bradman was the first living person, other than a ruling monarch, to feature on an Australian stamp.
Since then, recipients have included Arthur Boyd, Slim Dusty, Rod Laver, Dame Joan Sutherland, Barry Humphries and Nicole Kidman.
Australia Post Managing Director and CEO, Ahmed Fahour, said the 2011 award celebrated the tireless contributions the passionate women have made towards achieving women's equality in Australia.
The stamp series is released on Thursday.
