DULCIE Corbett’s philosophy is that if you educate and empower a woman, you educate and empower a family.<\/p>\n
Her desire to do so led her to become the first female president of the Ballarat Trades and Labour Council in 1989 and a member of the community who continuously advocated for women in trade unions.<\/p>\n
For these contributions, Ms Corbett is being inducted into the Zonta Club of Ballarat’s Great Women Honour Roll.<\/p>\n
“I thought of it as recognition for women to become president because I had stood for it once before, and someone had sort of said they were supporting me, but in fact they were organising another male candidate,” she said.<\/p>\n
“But this time I beat them and I knew that sometimes they don’t play by the rules or interpret the rules as being male-oriented.”<\/p>\n
One of Ms Corbett’s proudest memories is when she helped women working at a local motel receive fair pay more than 30 years ago.<\/p>\n
“I can distinctly remember the first time I actually got an employer to agree that I could have a meeting of all staff, because that was something we could have under the award, but they made it very difficult,” she said.<\/p>\n
“I found that everyone working there were working mums, with children. Some of them had been working there for 20 years and didn’t know the award wage.<\/p>\n
“It ended up that we settled that, and they got their right amount of pay, but not only that, I then went and worked out how much they were owed, and they were owed a lot of money.”<\/p>\n
Ms Corbett’s work extends beyond advocating for women in trade unions.<\/p>\n
She has also helped women in the community escape domestic violence, assisted people in finding safe housing and aided women in becoming active in politics.<\/p>\n
Although Ms Corbett’s capabilities were often misjudged, by the end of her career local hospitality bosses knew she meant business.<\/p>\n
She never lost an Australian Hotels Association case and when she retired, one local hotel threw a party to celebrate.<\/p>\n
“The head of the AHA in Ballarat…he said ‘We are having a party tonight, and the party is because you are retiring,’ and we laughed about that.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
DULCIE Corbett’s philosophy is that if you educate and empower a woman, you educate and empower a family. Her desire to do so led her to become the first female president of the Ballarat Trades and Labour Council in 1989 and a member of the community who continuously advocated for women in trade unions. For […]<\/p>\n