Debate to focus on women's history

Professor Angela Woollacott, Manning Clark Professor of History from the School of History  is to team with  Dr Ann Summers, National Museum of Australia founding director, Dr Dawn Casey, Indigenous Land Corporation chairwoman, ANU deputy vice-chancellor, Professor Marnie Hughes Warrington, Professor Mairlyn Lake, president of the Australian Historical Association, and Alex Biggs, former Australian Young Historian of the Year, to debate the proposition that "Australia doesn't need Women's History Month"  Professor Woollacott will debate that a special Women's History Month is unnecessary for Australian  but, with her passion for women's history and its relevance, her stance will be based aoround the nuances of the month rather than the importance of women's history,

"I'm going to argue we need to promote women's history in the public eye as often as we can."

The background:

Women’s History Month in Australia, launched in 2000 at Parliament House in Canberra by Senators Margaret Reid and Amanda Vanstone and MP Carmen Lawrence, has been celebrated here for a decade.

The success of Women’s History Month in the US, a national event since a 1987 resolution of Congress, and in Canada where it was proclaimed in 1992, had inspired this initiative in Australia.

Women’s History Month is also celebrated each March in the UK, where it is run by a small group of volunteers.

In Australia, the celebration of Women’s History Month has remained a series of voluntary endeavours, for the past decade encouraged and overseen by a small Canberra-based team, the Australian Women’s History Forum (AWHF).

The debate will take place at 6 for 6.30pm on March 26, 2014 in Canberra's historic Albert Hall