Australia Day honours: Eye surgeon Anne Brooks agrees women overlooked

Men have yet again dominated this year’s Australia Day honours list, with just over a third of awards going to women.

Associate Professor Anne Brooks is being recognised for her service to ophthalmology and eye health organisations. Picture: Aaron Francis

When eminent eye surgeon Anne Brooks becomes one of the few women to accept an Order of Australia on Tuesday, the moment will be bittersweet.

“It’s quite odd,” Dr Brooks said. “My mother was one of the first female ophthalmologists in Australia. She was a trailblazer, so I wonder why she missed out.”

But in Australia, being a trailblazer is often not enough to secure the nation’s highest honour, especially if you’re a woman.

Since the awards began in 1975, men have outnumbered women in almost all fields, with the exception of the library and disability categories. And men have yet again dominated this year’s honours list, with just over a third of awards going to women.

Dr Brooks is among 210 women — or 36.7 per cent — of recipients who will be honoured with an Australia Day award.

While Dr Brooks is “very happy” to be recognised as a Member of the Order of Australia for her services to ophthalmology, she wonders why her mother, pioneering ophthalmologist Nancy Lewis, never made the cut.

Dr Lewis founded an eye clinic at Melbourne’s Royal Children’s Hospital in 1941, and was the medical superintendent at the Royal Victorian Eye and Ear Hospital at the outset of World War II.

“It’s her legacy that I’ve continued,” Dr Brooks said. “My mother did so much back when there were very few female doctors, but women like her have historically been overlooked.”

The general division of this year’s Australia Day honours considered 800 nominations, of which 485 were for men and 315 for women.

Of those nominated, 571 or 71.4 per cent, were granted an award, with 361 going to men and 210 going to female recipients.

 

In medicine, men were nominated at nearly twice the rate of their female counterparts, with 51 men receiving nominations compared to just 26 women.

Honours are determined by the Council for the Order of Australia under the auspices of the Governor-General, but it can only consider nominations from the public.

The highest award is the Companion of the Order (AC), then comes Officer of the Order (AO), Member of the Order (AM) and Medal of the Order (OAM).

Dr Nancy Lewis, right, with her daughter Anne Brooks AM and granddaughters Georgina, left, and Elita.

Last year’s honours contained the highest ever percentage of ­female recipients, with women taking out 348 — or 41.6 per cent — of all awards in 2020.

Governor-General David Hur­ley conceded more needed to be done to increase the number of nominations for women.

“I am determined to make sure that the Order of Australia reflects the diversity and breadth of our community,” he said.

“More needs to be done to achieve gender parity. Over the past 12 months I have initiated various initiatives in this regard to encourage people and organisations to nominate individuals they think are worthy.”

There were no nominations in the general division for women in mining, parliament, transport and veterinary science.

 

There was at least one man nominated in every category except for information technology, library and related occupations.

There were no nominations considered at all in the industrial relations and the surveying and mapping sectors.

Fewer women were granted awards in nearly every category except information technology (one female recipient and no male recipients) tourism and hospitality (one man and three women), and library and related occupations (two female recipients and no male recipients).