The Sydney Morning Herald http://www.smh.com.au/news/0104/27/text/features7.html Yarralumla boys' club is safe for another term Date: 27/04/2001 So you couldn't find even one woman suitable to be governor-general, eh, Mr Howard? Well, Anne Summers has a few suggestions. Once upon a time in Australia, women were not allowed to read the news on radio or TV because their voices were considered too high to be authoritative. Nor were women allowed to pilot planes because of the bizarre supposition that once a month they might veer off course. I thought we Australians had long ago discarded such absurd prejudices but it seems, in the discussions surrounding the appointment of our latest governor-general, that some linger. The Prime Minister would have liked to have appointed a woman, we are told via what appeared to be an orchestrated leak from his office. This was no doubt supposed to earn him kudos from the country's women. Trouble is, he could not find one. In a nation of almost 20 million people, slightly more than half of whom are women, not one of sufficient "gravitas" could apparently be found. I don't believe he could have looked very hard. It took me less than an hour to come up with the following names, 45 women with stacks of gravitas. I am not trying to anoint any one of these individuals. Indeed, there are several whom I would hate to see in the job, but my opinions are irrelevant. I simply wanted to address the slur that we lack qualified women. There are many. In case they were deemed too close to the coalface, I deliberately excluded current or recent politicians, bureaucrats and the many competent women on corporate boards. This ruled out the likes of Jocelyn Newman and Joan Kirner, as well as company directors such as Helen Lynch, Helen Nugent, Margaret Jackson, Eve Mahlab and Jillian Broadbent. I also left off any woman who is a close friend of mine, thus excluding several clearly competent contenders but I did not want to appear to be promoting my mates. Even so, I was able to come up with the following names: Thea Astley, AO, author; Sallyanne Atkinson, AO, former Lord Mayor of Brisbane; Dr Marie Bashir, AO, Governor of NSW; Jean Battersby, AO, arts consultant and former CEO Australia Council; Dame Beryl Beaurepaire, AC, community worker; Isobel Ida Bennett, AO, eminent marine biologist; Sister Veronica Brady, educator and author; General Eva Burrows, AC, former world leader of the Salvation Army; Joan Carden, AO, opera singer; Professor Bettina Cass, AO, Dean of Arts, University of Sydney; Hon Joan Child, AO, former Speaker of the House of Representatives; Elizabeth (Betty) Churcher, AO, former head of the National Gallery of Australia; Professor Adrienne Clarke, AO, Lieutenant-Governor, Victoria, scientist and former head, CSIRO; Stella Cornelius, AO, mediator and conflict resolution analyst; Professor Suzanne Cory, AC, director Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research; Ruth Cracknell, AM, actor and author; Justice Elizabeth Evatt, AC, former chief judge of the Family Court and UN Human Rights Committee member; Kaarene Fitzgerald, AC, SIDS campaigner and medical researcher; Leneen Forde, AC, former governor of Queensland; Dame Phyllis Frost, AC, philanthropist and community activist; Professor Fay Gale, AO, former vice-chancellor University of WA; Justice Mary Gaudron, High Court judge; Professor Jacqueline Goodnow, AC, behavioural scientist; Dame Margaret Guilfoyle former senator and Cabinet minister in the Fraser government; Dr Elinor Hamlin, AC, eminent gynaecologist working in Ethiopia; Hazel Hawke, author and community activist; Janet Holmes a Court, AO, businesswoman; Sister Deirdre Jordan, AC, chancellor Flinders University; Professor Priscilla Kincaid-Smith, AC, former professor of Medicine, University of Melbourne; Dame Leonie Kramer, AC, Chancellor University of Sydney; Justice Jane Matthews, Federal Court judge; Emeritus Professor Nancy Millis, AC, Chancellor La Trobe University; Mirka Mora, artist; Dame Elisabeth Murdoch, AC, philanthropist; Professor Marcia Neave, AO, professor of law, Monash University; Justice Deirdre O'Connor, president, Administrative Appeals Tribunal; Lowitja O'Donohue, AC, Aboriginal activist; Margaret Olley, AO, artist; Justice Mahla Pearlman, AM, Chief Judge, Land and Environment Court; Sister Mary Reardon, AO, Administrator, St Margaret's Hospice, Darlinghurst; Professor Cheryl Saunders, AO, professor of law, University of Melbourne; Jean Skuse, AO, former national co-ordinator, World Council of Churches Assembly; Professor Fiona Stanley, AC, professor of pediatrics, University of WA; Dame Joan Sutherland, AC, opera singer; Nancy-Bird Walton, AO, aviator. Not a governor-general among them? Perhaps a president. Anne Summers was head of the Office of the Status of Women (1983-1986) and adviser on women's issues to Prime Minister Paul Keating (1992-93). 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