What drives Clementine Ford to stand up and Fight Like A Girl?

Last month, we whisked Clementine Ford away on a writing retreat to our nation’s capital – or ‘onc’, as she likes to call it. We wined her, we dined her, and we took her on a Badass Women of Canberra tour to see – among other things – the historic single female toilet in Old Parliament House. Which, by the way, was actually a men’s toilet up until the 70s, when they boarded over the urinal and gave it to the broads in the building. Before that, women had to go home to use the bathroom.

“Isn’t that just so typical?” says Ford. “That they’re like, Well, I guess we’ll just take one of the many things that men have, and we’ll kind of patch it up and give it to you and we’ll call that equality.”

Her verdict? Not on the toilet, on the retreat: “I don’t think that people realise that Canberra is really cool.” So what’s Ford’s creative process? What’s she working on now? How does she get so much stuff done? And what role does a getaway play in her writing practice?

In our first instalment of A Room of One’s Own, in partnership with VisitCanberra, we step inside Ford’s magical brain and find out more about the inspiration behind her success.

“We need a room, but we also need a world that recognises the enormous contributions and capacity that women and mothers have to give.”

“I found out last year that I had ADHD,” says Ford from the bustling cafe she often works and writes from. “It answered a lot of questions about me in my life, but also about my creativity.” For her, having ADHD has made the traditional nine to five almost impossible – “I’ve been fired from every traditional job that I’ve ever had,” she says – but it’s also opened up whole new ways of thinking and creating.

“I can’t speak for any other people, but it makes sense to me that people who have a differently wired brain, and people who have an ADHD brain in particular, would be drawn to the creative industries, because we’ve also got magical brains in the way that we think and in the way that we create.”

When it comes to her upcoming book I Don’t: A Case Against Marriage, which takes a look at the institution of Western marriage, its history and its tradition of oppressing women, certain traits helped her hugely, especially during the extensive research phase.

“I’ve been very benefited by hyper fixation on stuff I find interesting, because I find feminism fascinating,” she says. “I really loved She Shapes History, because I love learning things. I love history. I love learning about women.”

Throughout her stay on Ngunnawal Country, Ford balanced working on her creative projects with taking some time out to relax and unwind. She took in a cocktail at Joe’s Bar, had brunch and browsed the books at Muse Cafe, did some reading over dinner at Agostinis restaurant. “It’s beautiful to be able to go and stay in a nice hotel, have a delicious dinner, drinks, a nice wine if that’s your tipple, or non-alcoholic drinks. Go and see our nation’s capital. But that’s not the only way, you know?”

Ford warns against women feeling like they have to treat themselves to compensate for feeling undervalued in the everyday. Or worse, neglecting themselves and then mistaking the fundamentals for indulgence. “Self care is not, like, having a shower – basic hygiene should not be confused with being self care for women. It’s like, you’re entitled to have a bath, you’re allowed to have a bath.”

So does Virginia Woolf’s old essay hold true for Ford? What needs to happen next in the fight for gender equality? “That idea of a room of one’s own,” she ponders. “Yes, we need a room, but we also need a world that recognises the enormous contributions and capacity that women and mothers have to give, and that doesn’t continue to insist that a woman’s role is to be the backstage hand.”

Real structural change, a comfy room and a desk to boot: we couldn’t agree more.

A Room of One’s Own is proudly supported by VisitCanberra.