Wise and Wonderful Women
Dr Carol Bacchi and Professor Alison MacKinnon – History, c1988, University of Adelaide, Special Collections, Archives, Series 695, Item 951
Academic women have played a central role in the making of Adelaide’s universities. Over the last fifty years, women have entered universities in growing numbers. They developed careers, produced internationally acclaimed research, taught and mentored students, and have created diverse pathways for following generations.
The Wise and Wonderful Women exhibition is based on oral histories with retired women who worked at the three South Australian universities during the period 1970 to 2024. Participants, drawn from across the academy, had expertise in the social sciences, visual arts, humanities, law, economics, architecture, nursing, psychology, mathematics, physics, and biology. Most belonged to the ‘baby boomer’ generation, though some were older. They were distinctive as a group of women for whom professional careers opened in large numbers for the first time.
Looking back on their working lives, they tell a story of how women made careers in male-dominated institutions and fought to transform their environments to support women’s success. This exhibition celebrates the important work they performed in shaping our institutions today.
Exhibition dates: 15 May – 9 July 2025
Opening hours: Monday to Friday, 10 am – 4 pm
Location: Ira Raymond Exhibition Room, Level 3, Barr Smith Library, University of Adelaide, Kaurna Yerta
FREE admission
Public Program: ‘Life after University: Women Academics Retire’, a talk by Professor Katie Barclay
What do women do after they retire from a career in South Australian Universities. Using oral histories with retired academics, this talk explores why women academics retire, what they do in retirement, and what it means to flourish after a professional career. Katie Barclay is a historian of women, gender and the university.
Date: Monday 19 May 2025
Time: 6 - 7:30pm
Location: Flentje Lecture Theatre, Level 3, Barr Smith South, University of Adelaide, Kaurna Yerta
FREE admission
Exhibition team: Katie Barclay, Prudence Black, Fiona Borthwick
Advisory Panel: Margaret Allen, Vivienne Moore, Pam Papadelos, Megan Warin
Design: Richard Rose
Acknowledgements: With thanks to the 45 women who generously shared their stories, and to Isabelle Moss and Eve Marlow for their research assistance; Kate Sergeant at the University of South Australia; Mary Addyman at Flinders University; the Fay Gale Centre for Research on Gender; the Barr Smith Library, and the Faculty of ABLE, University of Adelaide for supporting this work.