My mother did the traditional thing when she married in 1963. She left work to raise children. She did housework and in her spare time enjoyed embroidering. She even exhibited her embroidery. But underneath this conventional exterior my mother did things differently. Mum decided to complete year twelve when I was a baby. Her mother-in-law approved of her studying. “She was … [Read more...] about My Mother the Computer Programmer
Family History
Search For WWI Soldier Diaries Held by State Library NSW
11/11/2013: I have taken down the page referred to in this post because the State Library of NSW has launched a new portal to their WWI collection and now have one page on their website which lists all the transcribed diaries. See my post 'New WWI Website from State Library NSW' for an overview and links to the Library's WWI pages. Are the World War I diaries or letters of the … [Read more...] about Search For WWI Soldier Diaries Held by State Library NSW
The Diaries of a WWI Soldier
There were many advertisements just like the one above, placed in newspapers around Australia after the end of World War I. The soldiers of Australia’s citizen army had finally returned and some of them brought with them intimate historical records of the war – the diaries they had composed on the battlefronts. The principal librarian of the State Library of New South Wales, … [Read more...] about The Diaries of a WWI Soldier
Glimpses of a Young Woman Working in Laboratories 1959-1963
It was Robyn Arianrhod’s book, Seduced by Logic, that prompted me to write this series of posts about my mother’s working life and her education in maths and science. Arianrhod’s book is about two female mathematicians, one from the eighteenth century and the other who lived in the nineteenth century. These women made significant contributions to the scientific revolution … [Read more...] about Glimpses of a Young Woman Working in Laboratories 1959-1963
Quietly Pushing Barriers Aside
This week came the disappointing news that the participation in Maths by girls in their final year of school in New South Wales is declining significantly. In 2001, the first year when students were no longer required to study a Maths or science subject in year twelve in order to qualify for university entrance, 90.5% of girls studied Maths whereas 96.9% of boys did. The … [Read more...] about Quietly Pushing Barriers Aside