More women take a bow for their service

More women have been recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list this year than ever before.

Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove salutes during the Queen’s Birthday Parade at the Royal Military College, Duntroon, on Saturday. Picture: AAP

More women have been recognised in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List this year than ever before, with 40 per cent of awards going to females.

Of the 993 awards in the general division approved by Governor-General Sir Peter Cosgrove this year, 395 women and 598 men were recognised. This marks the highest number of women honoured in the history of the Order of Australia, which began in 1975.

Women garnered a greater number of awards than men in three of the 31 categories — education, multicultural affairs and media — but there were more male recipients of each of the Order of Australia award types (AC, AO, AM and OAM).

Across the disciplinary fields, 175 women were recognised for their work with the community, 33 for their contribution to the arts, 40 in medicine, 25 in sport and 26 in education.

Of the 1374 nominations received for this year’s awards, 543 were for women and 831 nominations were for men.

“It is great that the overall number of nominations and upward trend of Australian women being acknowledged through the honours system continues to grow,” Sir Peter said, in what will be his last Queen’s Birthday Honours as governor-general.

“We would all welcome higher recognition of magnificent Australian women.”

Order of Australia Council chairman Shane Stone said the ­increase in female recipients was an encouraging step and he hoped to see a 50/50 gender split in the awards during his tenure as chair.

Mr Stone, who has served on the award’s general council for the past six years, said the lack of ­female nominees in previous years demanded change but there was still “more to be done”.

“We’ve still got that 10 per cent gap to close,” he said. “The perplexing thing is that both men and women have tended to nominate men in the past, but we’re gradually breaking that trend.”

He said the nomination process had been streamlined and digitised to encourage people to make more nominations. “Despite this, I am still not satisfied by the number of female nominations, indigenous-Australian nominations or those for members of ethnic and disabled communities,” Mr Stone said.

Annabelle Bennett, president of the Anti-Discrimination Board of NSW, was one of five women to become a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC) this year for her service to the law — particularly in the field of intellectual property — and also for her contributions to higher education.

The ABC’s new chair, Ita Buttrose, also became an AC for “eminent service to the community” through leadership in the media, the arts, and the health sector.

Quantum physicist Michelle Simmons has become an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for her contributions to science education. Also receiving an AO is former Democrats leader Natasha Stott Despoja for her advocacy for gender equality and ending violence against women.

Virologist Ruth Bishop, a leading member of the team that discovered the human rotavirus, has been awarded an AC for eminent service to global child health and medical research.

Sharan Burrow received an AC for her service to industrial relations and human rights in developing countries.