Inga Clendinnen (1934–2016) was a writer, academic and historian whose work on Aztec and Mayan cultures and the Holocaust has been praised around the world.

Diane Cilento (1933–2011) was born in Mooloolaba, Queensland and achieved international acclaim as a stage and screen actor in the 1950s and 60s.

Art has always been Betty Churcher's (1931–2015) private and public passion. As an educator and a gallery director, her vision was to make people see art as accessible and relevant.

On the world stage women have been excluded from leadership roles in the Christian church.

Veronica Brady (1929–2015) became one of the first Australian nuns to teach in a university, broadcast on radio and enter public socio-political debate.

Flo Bjelke-Peterson (1920–2017) was a National Party Senator for Queensland, and was also well known as the wife of former Queensland Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen.

A fully qualified pilot by the age of 19, Nancy Bird-Walton (1915–2009) went from being the youngest commer

Faith Bandler (1920–2015) was a descendant of South Sea Islanders. She was born in Tumbulgum, NSW.

Born of Chinese parents, Lily (1917–2001) became a housemaid for a European family after leaving Darwin Public School at 14.

Lois O’Donoghue was born at Indulkana in the remote north-west of South Australia in 1932, a time when the situation for Aboriginal people could not have been more desperate.