Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins. Source: AAP/David Moir
When Kate Jenkins was growing up in the 70s on her family orchard in outer Melbourne with two brothers, she vividly remembers watching a news report about Deborah Lawrie (known as Deborah Wardley while married), becoming Australia’s first female pilot to fly with a major airline after winning a landmark sex discrimination case again Ansett Airlines.
“I have a very strong memory of seeing Deborah on the front page of the newspaper when she went to the High Court after being denied a role as a pilot purely on the basis of sex. As a 10-year-old girl, I was enraged,” recalls Jenkins.