Anne Summers on feminism and living in Sydney

By Nicole Elphick
Updated August 28 2014 - 6:08pm, first published 5:37pm
Happy here: Anne Summers says Victoria Street is a place close to her heart.
Happy here: Anne Summers says Victoria Street is a place close to her heart.

 

During her career, Anne Summers has built up a most eclectic résumé  including stints as editor-in-chief of Ms. magazine, running the Hawke government's Office of the Status of Women and taking the reins as deputy president of the Powerhouse Museum.  Her most recent venture has seen her exploring the terrain of digital publishing with her free online magazine Anne Summers Reports launching in November 2012. (Cover stars have included Hillary Rodham Clinton, Cate Blanchett and Julia Gillard.)

The long-time women's rights advocate has found a current resurgence of interest in feminist issues.  "I feel at the moment it's almost a bit like the '70s again," Summers says. "What's different this time though is not only are all the young women getting angry about things, but there's still my generation and the ones in between. So you've got many more women than we had the first time around."

Did you grow up around activism?

No. Back when I was growing up, there wasn't really any such thing. Comparing then and now, it's like two different worlds. Life was very dull and dreary. My memories of childhood are men in grey coats wearing hats and women at home doing housework.

What prompted you to move to Sydney in 1971?

I wanted to get out of Adelaide. I found Adelaide a very stifling place. I thought if I came to Sydney that is where I would have opportunities to become a writer, to become a journalist, hopefully to write books. It really worked out for me that all the things I wanted to do were possible in Sydney.

How did the founding of women's refuge Elsie come about in 1974?

When I moved to Sydney I sought out the women's movement here and got involved. We had these speak-outs where we'd gather together and talk about issues. One we did in March 1974 was about violence. In the past we'd talked about things like equal pay, equal education, the right to abortion and contraception. We'd never confronted the issue of violence and what was so shocking about this speak-out was the number of women who got up and said they'd been raped, they'd been bashed. That was a real wake-up call to us and we decided we wanted to do something about domestic violence, as it came to be called. A few of us had this idea of starting a women's refuge. We found some houses in Glebe that were empty and took them over. Elsie was the first and then gradually the movement spread so there were well over 90 refuges around Australia within a fairly short time. And I think all of them have been full ever since and that is the horrifying thing.

You currently live in Potts Point. Are you a city person?

Very much.  I lived in New York for seven years and when we [Summers and long-term partner Chip Rolley, editor of the ABC's online website The Drum] came back to live in Sydney in 1993, I hadn't lived in Sydney for almost 15 years. We looked around and ended up coming to live in Victoria Street Potts Point. At the time we bought our house we were the only people who bid for it. Everyone thought we were mad to be living in the Cross, but we'd come from New York so we weren't particularly concerned about crime. One of the things that attracted us to the house is it has fantastic views of the city. We saw the city skyline and we thought, well, that's going to be our mini Manhattan.

What piece at the Powerhouse Museum is special to you?

One of the things I had quite a sentimental attachment to, and I remember taking my mother there when she was still alive, was a big section out the back called the transport hall. They had a Catalina flying boat suspended from the roof. It's a huge aeroplane, my father used to fly them during World War II. He actually had been involved in a crash in one of them. That was quite emotional to see that.

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