Growing up in the 1970s the messages on the posters on the walls of Greensburg Elementary School boasted ‘Girls Can Do Anything’. As a small town Kansas girl in the Midwest of the United States, I internalised that message and took it to heart. But what we girls weren’t told was it would be an uphill battle. We could and did do anything, but among our wb40 readership I doubt there are many of us who don’t have a story of a major career battle that was fought because of our gender. Learning to navigate the issues of gender bias, handsy bosses, and male colleagues who still believed a woman’s place was in the home were essential skills in the unwritten playbook of making it to the top in the 1980s. I’ll never forget heading to the podium at age twenty-four for one of the proudest moments of my academic life only to feel a sharp pinch on my bottom as I made my way past the vice chancellor. The colleague beside him confirmed in a not so hushed tone that indeed they both felt I was a ‘bit of all right’. I can confirm the bloke who received the identical research fellowship the year prior didn’t cop a pinch.
Sandy Davies and Eileen Burchill as extras on the set of dive club
A recent foray into the world of being a film set Extra brought home how much the world has changed. The message is no longer ‘Girls Can Do Anything’; today the message is ‘Women Are Doing Everything’ and it is not a big deal. And that discovery is how my feminist brain came to explode with resounding joy. Side comments and unwarranted physical advances like so many of us experienced in previous decades today result in the offenders being walked off set and struggling to find industry work ever again. Those Hollywood changes have occurred across the industry both overseas and here in Australia. And wider scoping change is happening in Canberra as you read these words. Brisbane based production house The Steve Jaggi Company made Port Douglas in Far North Queensland their COVID-safe home for the filming of series one of teen/family drama Dive Club. This ray of hope during an otherwise rather dreary year injected nearly $8 million into the local Queensland economy. The region was abuzz with excitement having a major film company in a regional area instead of the usual big city studio locales.
73
