With this week’s meeting being linked to International Women’s Day I thought it was worthwhile looking at how this has impacted Rotary over the years.
To be honest Rotary as an organisation has not been a leading light in the integration of women until more recent times. The first Rotary International female President was Jennifer Jones in 2022-23; Australia had it’s first female PM in 2010 and Canada in 1993; the USA are still working on this but I think they have some other major political challenges to overcome first as well.
As Members will be aware Rotary Hawthorn has a 70 year history and even though women were not allowed to join the Club in the early years they have a significant impact on our Club today. We have had a number of women as Club Presidents commencing with Anne Scott in 1999-2000.
I am pleased to say the current Hawthorn Board has an equal number of women and men with Dorothy Gilmour as the incoming President for 2024-25. The Club is also seeing at least an equal number of women versus men as new members, which I feel is a positive sign for the Club moving forward.
Photos: Pauline and Mark Eldridge with Terry Kitchen and Liz Johnson (above) and Guest Speaker Varvara Athanasiou-Ioannou (right)
Our guest speaker this week was Varvara Athanasiou-Ioannou and her topic was a book she wrote 'Her Voice, Greek Women and Their Friends', about the personal and professional lives of 42 women living in Australia.
Each of the women was interviewed by Varvara and shared their stories of inspiration and challenges to integrate into Australia from a different cultural background. As a multi-cultural country, Varavara’s book demonstrates it is still difficult for non-English speaking immigrants, women in particular, to navigate the local language and customs.
Announcements
Rotary Hawthorn AFL Tipping Competition. As outlined by a recent email we are hosting a Club Footy Tipping competition this year on the ESPN website with 12 members already registered. If you would like to join the competition details are included in this week’s Bulletin.
Taverners raffle ticket sales. A reminder the Club is selling Taverners raffle tickets again this year with half the monies collected donated back to the Club; details are included in this week’s Bulletin.
Unfortunately we have had to cancel The Australian Jazz Museum tour scheduled for Tuesday 12th March, and will be looking at an alternative date later in the year
We have no Club meeting scheduled for next Tuesday but will be holding the monthly Board meeting that evening.
The Annual Award for Service to Seniors Presentation will be on Tuesday 19th March. Our guest speaker is Gerard Mansour, former Commissioner for Seniors. Gerard is President of Winteringham, a not-for-profit welfare organisation created to address the scourge of elderly homelessness and will present our award. We would encourage members to invite family and friends to this very special meeting, booking details are included in the Bulletin.
MHU Care Packs Packing day Tuesday 26th March from 9:30 am. If you are available to join us please let Katrina know and we will be finished in time to join the monthly Zoom meeting after.
Doug McLean
President 2023-24