How many women will be on council?

There have been many hundreds of men who have served since local government came into being in the 1880s, but it’s fair to say the electorate has traditionally managed to keep women out of the council chambers.

A cursory peek at the records from the 1880s up until the amalgamation of the three councils in 1981 indicates Mrs Boardman served on Bowral Council in 1936 and appears to be the first local female representative. The old Wingecarribee Shire only managed to elect one lady, Rachel Roxburgh, Mittagong had four (Dorothy Large, Edith Forrest, Joan Clarke and Myrtle May), while Bowral council elected just two other than Mrs Boardman - Bonnie Pierce and Ethel Willis. That adds up to a mere eight ladies in the first hundred years.

Representation by women has improved slightly since the bad old days when the only elected councillors were farmers, businessmen, or well-heeled gentlemen with plenty of spare time to sit around and puff on their pipe. However, in the last 35 years following the amalgamation of the councils we still have had only 11 female councillors taking their place in the Wingecarribee Shire Council chamber.

We need women on the council. I am not suggesting the ladies are necessarily any more sensitive, or visionary, or wiser, or better than the men, it is just that women provide another perspective and often think outside the square. Like one night when Sara Murray was mayor. The discussion had moved to the town plan and which zone was appropriate for a brothel should an application come to Wingecarribee Shire. The men were thinking business zone, commercial or light industrial, maybe, but quick as a flash Mayor Murray had the answer… “why not create an erogenous zone?” Touché. We need that female ingenuity.

So ladies, good luck on September 10. I hope you get elected, although once again the odds seem stacked in favour of the blokes.