THE SILLY season is in full swing. Here at The Express, we’re looking back on our favourite stories this year.
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From the funny to the serious – and even the heroic. Picking one story I liked most was harder than I expected.
But it’s hard to go past the perseverance of World War II veteran Thelma McCarthy.
“Just before we were posted, our trainer said to us - ‘Remember ladies, we don’t want to be the same as men, we want to be equal to men’, and that’s been my war cry my entire life,” Mrs McCarthy told me.
She couldn’t be much taller than five foot, but I imagine she can command a room with little more than a clearing of the throat.
Mrs McCarthy is true grit personified.
When women were called to serve in the war effort after the bombing of Darwin, Mrs McCarthy jumped at the opportunity.
At the post office, the men would take 18 months to reach the required 18 words a minute receiving and sending morse code.
Mrs McCarthy mastered it in just six weeks.
Posted to a Royal Australian Air Force base in Canberra at 18 years old, she quickly rose to the rank of sergeant.
I remember being gobsmacked when she told me the airman that scrubbed the floor made more money than she did.
It was a stark reminder of how far the women’s rights movement has come.
And, the women I have to thank for fighting so hard to get us here.
“They talk about women’s rights but these girls, they had to fight very hard for a lot of their rights - from the ground up,” Mrs McCarthy said.
“We had to prove ourselves not only to be the same as but to be better than men, and my word we did.”
Ms McCarthy was awarded an Order of Australia Medal for her service.
Proving ourselves is something I think women continue to have to do, and something I hope I’ve done over the past year here.
As we prepare to slow down over Christmas and head home to visit family, I’m excited to see what challenges, personalities and politics 2018 will bring.