Apparel icon gets honorary degree

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Naomi Milgrom AO will be presented with an Honorary Doctorate – Doctor of Business Honoris Causa, by RMIT University on Wednesday, at its graduation ceremony at Etihad Stadium in Melbourne. Milgrom is Executive Chair and CEO of the Sussan Group that includes apparel chains Sportsgirl, Sussan and Suzanne Grae. Under her leadership the group has grown to become Australia’s largest women’s apparel fashion retailer. Milgrom is a regular contributor to RMIT University through the School of Fashion and Textiles, and Design Victoria. The university says her business acumen in fashion has clear links to RMIT’s strengths, and many students have benefited from her knowledge and expertise – both directly at RMIT and through her involvement with the Melbourne Fashion Festival.

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Stosur wins second Newcombe Medal

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Sam Stosur collected her second Newcombe Medal in Melbourne last night to top off this year’s stellar tennis season. The 27-year-old was crowned the inaugural Newcombe Medal winner last year after reaching the French Open final, breaking a drought for Australian women in making a grand slam decider. It had been 30 years since Wendy Turnbull lost to Hana Mandlikova in the 1980 Australian Open final and Evonne Goolagong Cawley beat Chris Evert at Wimbledon six months later. But this year Stosur went one better, winning the US Open in September on a historic day in New York to become the first Australian grand slam champion since Lleyton Hewitt’s 2002 Wimbledon triumph and the first woman for 31 years.

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Women changing the face of science: Cathy Foley

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Many people would be set back for life if their mum had died suddenly when they were nine years old. But not Dr Cathy Foley. As chief of CSIRO’s Materials Science and Engineering division, Foley is one of only a handful of Australian women who hold very senior positions in science. Only 10 per cent of CSIRO’s highest salary earners are women, according to Professor Sharon Bell in the 2009 report Women in Science in Australia. Foley manages a huge team of researchers developing high-tech tools and materials to enhance manufacturing and mining, while continuing research in her own specialist field, superconducting electronics. But to get there, she had to overcome enormous personal and career barriers which would have put off not just many women, but men too.

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Women thrive on risky business

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WOMEN are likely to be more ambitious and take career risks when they are surrounded by other women, new research shows. The study by the Australian National University challenges the long-held belief that risk-taking behaviour, more common in men, is entirely testosterone-driven. Rather, the ANU’s Professor Alison Booth says the results show risk-taking in women comes down to environmental factors and can be modified over time. She says the findings could have significant implications for the labour market and engender changes to workplace training and structures that could help reduce gender inequality in the workforce.

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World champion cyclist Anna Meares the only Australian woman floated as Laureus Sportswoman of the Year nominee

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Tennis star Sam Stosur and world champion athlete Sally Pearson haven’t got a mention but one of Australia’s favourite cyclists Anna Meares is in the running for a Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year nomination. Yesterday Tour de France winner Cadel Evans and Casey Stoner’s names were put up as potential nominations by award officials with Meares the only Australian mentioned today when they released early contenders for the honour. Meares, who won a trifecta of gold medals at the world track cycling championships in Holland earlier this year, continues to prove herself one of the most likeable and popular athletes in Australia sport.

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Princess Mary to name flying breast care nurse

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Her Royal Highness Crown Princess Mary will announce the name of the country’s first flying breast care nurse when she visits Broken Hill today. The Danish royal will spend two hours in Broken Hill having lunch at the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) base. While in the city, Princess Mary will announce the new McGrath Foundation breast nurse, who will be working with the RFDS.

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Women in Politics: Dr Meredith Burgmann asks ‘Why aren’t we there yet?’

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Dr Meredith Burgmann will speak at the Sydney Mechanics’ School of Arts on 8 November to discuss the role gender plays in Australian political life. Although we have a female Prime Minister, and have had five female Premiers – and many women cabinet ministers – Australia’s focus on the appearance and domestic arrangements of our female politicians reveals that we still aren’t “there” yet.

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Familiar faces among Australia’s most admired women

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Miranda Kerr is the queen of Generation Y; Gen Z girls look up to Cathy Freeman; and for baby boomers, Evonne Cawley takes the crown of Australia’s most admired woman. But, unfortunately for our flame-haired first female PM, Julia Gillard did even not make the top 50 in a poll of Australia’s most admired women – as selected by their peers. Olympian Cathy Freeman took out pole position overall in the top-100 list, compiled by life insurer Million Dollar Woman, with philanthropist Jeanne Pratt pulling up the rear. The survey of about 1200 females, who ranked candidates from one to 10, found high-profile sportswomen, models, actors, musicians and chefs were revered higher than businesswomen, scientists and politicians.

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Australian women win in education

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Australian women continue to have the highest access and participation to education in the world, but the gender gap across three other key areas, particularly health and life outcomes is so poor the country does not even make the list of the top 20 most equitable countries. Even in the Asia Pacific, Australia only manages a distant third, well behind New Zealand and the Philippines. The major annual report from the World Economic Forum reveals that Australia comes 23rd in the world for gender equity. The Global Gender Gap report measures performance against indicators in four key pillars: economic participation and opportunity (18); educational attainment (1); health and survival (74) and political empowerment (38). The report, which is in its sixth year, has found that 85 per cent of the 60 countries surveyed have improved their gender equality ratios, with several African and South American nations being the notable exception.

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Publisher Diana Gribble nurtured literary talent

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You can’t understand Australian publishing without knowing about Diana Gribble. She came to publishing almost by accident. Born in 1942, she grew up in a boisterous, supportive family where the key idea was to chip in. As a child she contracted rheumatoid arthritis. The year of school she missed may have seeded her love of reading. She dropped out of architecture at the University of Melbourne when she had a recurrence of the illness. Perhaps abandoning her profession allowed her to find her vocation. She would invent herself as she went along. She once told me that she had never really imagined herself as a book publisher at all but always wanted to start a newspaper. Fulfilling that ambition lay in the future.

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