SHOULD a city dweller be allowed to become president of the Country Women’s Association?
A motion put to the association’s annual meeting in Armidale proposed just that this week.
A past NSW president made clear her frustration with the proposal when she uttered into the microphone: “Having an alpaca in the backyard and watching Landline doesn’t qualify you to be the CWA state president.”
The organisation, formed in NSW in 1922 by Ms Ruth Beatrix Fairfax OBE, (yes a member of the publishing family that founded the corporation that now owns this newspaper), was formed to meet a need.
At the time women in far-flung regions of the country were undoubtedly among the most marginalised, voiceless inhabitants of the country, barring Indigenous women and children.
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They came together to form a union of people facing adversity and gradually built into a formidable force representing those removed from the metropolises.
More than 96 years later the association is far from a group of women who can whack together a batch of scones in a blip at the sign of a dust cloud making its way to the homestead.
Today it has more than 44,000 members of 1855 branches, politicians heap adulation upon it and declare it an essential “partner” in the decision-making process.
Therein lies the danger for women of goodwill and a welcoming, if conditional, in nature.
The CWA has never shied away from political issues, take for example its stance on pest animals, regional and remote connectivity and the Murray Darling Basin.
It has never shied from putting men in their place when it comes to management.
The past state president closed her short statement saying: “I have great respect for our Sydney City branch, but if there was a city women’s association I wouldn’t think I would want to be their president”.
Echoing her sentiments, another delegate said from the floor, “firsthand knowledge is essential to be a leader of the CWA, this is an example of a minority believing they have a right to intervene. Vote ‘no’ unless you can confidently vote on solely city issues”.
The fact the Country Women’s Association is a powerful political body now makes it a target for aspiring politicians, even those of urban descent.
This week it held fast to its heritage.
