germaine greer to be honoured on postage stamp, page-25

Germaine Greer may be a grumpy old woman at times, like me! She was important in helping women get more fair treatment in business and in the workplace, and in the home. Around the time she wrote 'The Female Eunuch', my own experience of life for women in Australia included:

Women were automatically made to resign from the Commonwealth public service as soon as they married. They were sometimes allowed back as temporary employees only. They were barred from contributing to superannuation. (Which, together with the fact that women were paid less for doing the same work, is why older women today are less likely to be as well off as their male counterparts.)

Women found it extremely difficult to borrow from banks for business purposes or home ownership.

I was barred from a job because a senior officer vetoed my appointment, saying the job was not suitable for a woman, even though the selection panel chose me above 200 other applicants. (The senior officer was not on the selection panel but had the power of veto. Two years later and EEO legislation would have forced him to specify another excuse for not giving me the job, at least publicly.)

I was told by a boss that a woman would never be appointed to a senior position in his firm, because they would most likely leave to have babies (despite the fact that many of his male management stayed only for a couple of years before moving jobs to other companies).

I was told by an academic review panel that men were given preference over women for the same reason as above, they will have babies.

Later, I was told by a job interviewer that I should be 'grateful' that the job in question might pay me, as a woman, the same amount that it would pay a man. (I didn't bother with the job - who could work with someone having those attitudes?)

Few will have agreed with everything Germaine Greer has written (including me). Women and men should thank her and others like her for making the world a much better and fairer place.

Younger people often have no idea how much has changed in the past few decades because of the efforts of people like Dr Greer.

And I understand she lives in both the UK and Australia - spending several months a year in each country.