Ruth’s Sociology Resources Blog

A little while ago I visited the National Pioneer Women’s Hall of Fame in Alice Springs, Australia. Possibly not very handy for your next college or school outing but a fascinating visit all the same! However there is a good website which has lots of information for those unable to visit the museum, including pictures and brief biographies of various pioneer women. The intention seems to be to expand the site over time and to include more educational resources. Go to www.pioneerwomen.com.au to have a look.
The museum has displays about women’s lives in Australia over the past 200 years, looking at the roles women played in the early white ’settlement’ of Australia and also in their pioneering roles in science and technology and other areas. The exhibitions also look at the ways in which individual women have pioneered the breakdown of male dominance in a wide range of fields.

Essentially the exhibitions cover women’s lives from the very ordinary to the extra-ordinary and give an insight into what life has been like in the past and tells some of the often forgotten stories about women’s roles in creating modern society.

My only criticism of the exhibitions is that they centre heavily on the contributions and lives of white European women. There does seem to be some attempt to redress this and the oral rather than written tradition of Aboriginal culture, as well as Australian society’s tendency to ignore and even suppress its Aboriginal heritage until recently, is no doubt partly to blame. However, in attempting to redress the power imbalance between men and women in Australia’s past the Hall of Fame seems to gloss over the role that white European women must have played in the oppression of less powerful groups such as Aborigines and in particular Aboriginal women.

Overall though this is a website (or a venue!) which is worth a visit for the ways in which it highlights women’s lives in what is a predominantly male history.