Wendy Morgan, in her appearance on ABC’s The Drum, showed the true face of Newstart recipients.
The majority are older women and they are on Newstart much longer than younger people, often for four years until they are old enough for the pension.
Wendy is not a drug addict. Nor is she a dole bludger.
She is a science tutor, has a double science degree in physics and chemistry, ran a printing lab and also has a forklift license.
Have you noticed something about the women who were honoured this year in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list?
Have you noticed that a significant number of these leaders in business, the media, STEM, women’s rights, Indigenous recognition, and innovation are women over the age of 50 – usually referred to as ‘older women’.
These women have been quite rightly recognised for their valuable contributions to society. So why is it that women over 50 are generally regarded in media and in terms of employment as having expended their value with their youth?
This election is characterised by bipartisan blindness. Both the Coalition’s 2019 Budget and the Budget Reply show that Scott Morrison and Bill Shorten have overlooked a looming national crisis. Neither is prepared to recognise that older women in Australia are ageing into poverty and homelessness in unprecedented numbers.
These women remain invisible to both leaders and to their party platforms.
And yet the statistics are available to those who want to see them.
Paul Keating recently expressed fears of a future when there will be two Australias. But we are already there. We already have a generation of people who have worked all their lives and now find themselves impoverished. They are women aged over 55 and there are over a million of them.
Their economic disadvantage is the consequence of a history of gender discrimination.
Throughout their working lives, these women suffered decades of economic discrimination, inequality and injustice.
Our names are Augustine Zycher and Rosalie Zycher. We are the Founders and Editors of WomanGoingPlaces.
We now setting up a Facebook Group called:
OLD SHEILAS SPEAKING UP
www.facebook.com/groups/oldsheilas/. Email: [email protected]
We belong to a generation of pioneers – women over the age of 50.
But we don’t really see ourselves as a pioneering generation. And we certainly are not given any credit for it. So maybe it’s worthwhile remembering just what we did pioneer.
Let’s start by listing what other people call us – matron, old lady, granny, biddy, old bag, crone, hag, witch, are some of the names used.
There is nothing positive about these appellations. They are either neutral or negative.
They denote weakness, ugliness, helplessness and even evil.
They constitute a massive put down.
In a society that values women primarily for their youthful beauty, sexual and reproductive powers, the more we age, the more we lose value. Our currency as women is devalued.
Until we become invisible.
For centuries, empires, governments and global companies have vied with each other in displays of wealth, grandeur and power along the Bund in Shanghai. For close to a quarter of a century, one Australian woman has maintained her position on the Bund with no power other than the power of her reputation.
Michelle Garnaut, CEO of the M Restaurant Group, has established restaurants and lounges that have pioneered independent fine dining in both China and Hong Kong.
Rosie Batty made Australia listen.
Her son, Luke aged 11, was with his father playing cricket in the park when his father walked over to him and killed him.
In expressing her personal grief, Rosie compelled us to see that family violence was our business. She made us see that the plight of thousands of women and children could one day be our plight, or that of someone close to us.
We, the Matriarchs… are the first generation in history of older, highly educated women to number in the tens of millions.
We are the first ever generation of older women who have spent decades in the workforce in professions and skilled employment, and not in the sweatshops and the fields.
We are the first ever generation of older women who have accumulated independent wealth and economic clout, despite discriminatory wage practices.
And we are the first ever generation of older women who can expect to live into their 90s.
But now we are entering the age of retirement. What next? What does society expect of us?
Well, nothing really.
Maureen Wheeler AO is a pioneer of landmark enterprises in both travel and in the cultural life of Melbourne.
She was the co-founder, with her husband Tony, of Lonely Planet books – guides as indispensable to travellers as their backpacks or suitcases.
Maureen was also the co-founder of the Wheeler Centre in Melbourne. This centre for books, writing and ideas played a critical role in Melbourne achieving its status as a UNESCO designated City of Literature.
