It’s Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day was yesterday, Sunday 8th March, I will be celebrating with local Cairns Business Woman, Tuesday 10th, just tomorrow.  I celebrate some woman below that have done some amazing things in Australia, I know I’m a Kiwi, just didn’t seem appropriate to celebrate them, when I’m living here in gorgeous Far North Queensland.

However, for me, yes history has produced some amazing woman worldwide that have paved a path for us, all that aside, what about the woman now who are your mothers, grandmothers, Aunts, and BFF’s.  This group of woman, and there’s a few more (finding photo’s of us all was a bit of challenge), have been by my side through the good, bad and the ugly….these are the woman, that we all have, usually we can count them on one hand, that we would all walk over hot coals for each other.  This in my mind respresents ‘true’ International Womans Day.  Enough about that, let’s get to the famous ones.

We all know that there are some truly remarkable Australian women who have made a name for themselves throughout our history, were they just superwoman that knew how to multitask like nothing we see today OR if house cleaning services have been a thing as long as Australia has had beer on tap. Don’t worry, this isn’t just an article about how much better life can be when you don’t have to worry about an entire house clean………..ok, maybe just a little.

To kick off the month I wanted to honour all the women worldwide who do amazing things for their friends, family and community. Especially in today’s world where the average woman has 10,000 different roles to take care of and is expected to do it with a smile. One of the things I love about my place here in the Cairns community is being able to take a little pressure off for the Mum’s (and Dad’s but it’s not your month 😉 by making sure their homes are spick and span. Don’t worry if you’ve come across this fun little article and you aren’t Cairns based. I have some great cleaning tips to get you started in my other blogs.

Ok let’s celebrate Women’s History Month with three inspirational Australian Women, who I bet were all over sorting out some local house cleaning services and if they didn’t exist they probably got it started. Ok I’ll stop and no numbering 1 to 3 here because these three women all deserve the podium in my books.

  • Ita Buttrose AC OBE

Seemingly born to shake things up Ita was women’s editor of The Telegraph by the time she was 23. Her illustrious career included spearheading Cleo and constantly changing the perceived limitations of women in Australia. The more we run through some of these fabulous Aussie’s achievements you’ll see why I joke about having no time for the house cleaning.

Ita worked right through as editor for the record-breaking Cleo whilst pregnant with her second son and continued to head numerous publications including Women’s Weekly as editor-in-chief. She’s an author who spent decades on our tv screens and is now Chief of the ABC.

Ita’s spread of awards is too long for my cheeky little Ode to Australian women but includes 2013 Australian of the Year and Officer of the Order of the British Empire. More than all of her career accomplishments Ita has made massive contributions to Australia both in her charitable and public service activities and has been a continuous champion for women. If she did manage to squeeze all those accomplishments in and still keep the dust at bay I’m very impressed!

  • Fanny Cochrane Smith

Fanny was born in 1834 in Tasmania and was an indigenous linguist who led an inspiring and dedicated life working to preserve as much indigenous heritage as she could. One of the really cool gifts she left to Australia and future indigenous generations were recordings in wax cylinders of Tassie indigenous songs and speech, which are the only original recordings now existence. Fanny truly inspires us to remember “when there is a will, there is a way” and to stand up for what we know is important.

  • Evonne Goolagong Cawley AC MBE 

It’s not an Australian list without at least one sporting icon. Another Aussie of the year and the owner of 14 Grand Slam titles by the age of 20. I wonder if she used to hold her vacuum in one hand whilst practicing in the other or if she left her weekly clean to the pro’s and focused on her backhand. 

In all seriousness, Evonne paved the way for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health and wellbeing doing a lot of work with young indigenous Australians and being an inspiring role model to women in general.

It’s a lot of fun to get inspired by looking back at some of the amazing women that have come before us and a reminder of the value of pursuing the things in life that are important to us. If something as simple as having someone take the pressure off and keep your place nice and clean then I’m very happy to be able to do my bit and don’t worry men, you’ll get you turn soon.

Until next time