Never too late: 'I was one of the oldest ones there, and I also had no hair. But it was wonderful'

Never too late: 'I was one of the oldest ones there, and I also had no hair. But it was wonderful'
As told to Celina Ribeiro
© Provided by The Guardian
Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian
Name:
Public servant turned visual artist
When I left school I trained as a teacher. Back in those days, teaching was what girls from the country did: teaching or nursing.
When I graduated, in the early 80s, there were no jobs for teachers at all. There was a recession. I was underemployed for years; did casual teaching, worked in a bank, cleaned houses, did screen printing at a factory, sold photographs in Kings Cross, worked in catering and as a security guard. Then finally I got a job in the public service, at the Royal Australian Mint, in Canberra. When I was there I heard of the Office of the Status of Women and I thought “I want to do that”. I managed to get transferred to Office and I worked there for about eight years. That was, for me, a very big break. Following that I worked in policy and research for all of my career, in a whole lot of different areas in the public service.

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