A Tribute To Susan Ryan

Future Women Ambassador, Wendy McCarthy AO, pens a moving tribute to her lifelong friend and trailblazing feminist, Susan Ryan AO.

By Wendy McCarthy

Leadership

Future Women Ambassador, Wendy McCarthy AO, pens a moving tribute to her lifelong friend and trailblazing feminist, Susan Ryan AO.

By Wendy McCarthy

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It is difficult to exaggerate the significance of the life of Susan Ryan. She was a woman of her time determined to make the world a different and better place. She had a fierce intelligence and the courage to take on the system when she saw the need for change to improve the lives of Australians.

Her sudden death on September 27 came as an unbearable shock to those close to her as I was. We had been friends for nearly 50 years brought together by the feminist politics of the early 1970s. We were co-founders of the Women’s Electoral Lobby (WEL), she in Canberra and me in Sydney.