My name is Margaret Bowman. I was born in the United Kingdom in England, a place called Leeds which is West Yorkshire. My mother was called Flora. She was probably dreadfully frustrated because she was a marvelous manager and could have run all sorts of things but it was all concentrated onto the domestic and social sphere and it's a small stage. My father was called Herbert. My father was a teacher of physics and maths. A very gentle, progressive, Manchester Garden 'leftie'. Cowper St Elementary School was in an inner suburb of Leeds. I remember we did geography lessons and there was the map of the world and a great deal of it was coloured red and that was the British empire and one felt one's chest puffing out with pride that this was wonderful and at the same time I must have picked up vibes, particularly from my father, that this was all dreadfully illegitimate and appalling. How could you feel pride but shame at the same time? And you did. Well I started doing... at really my mother's behest, a course to become a teacher of domestic science in England and I was teaching Domestic Science at the Oxford High School and there was a political meeting... I can't remember who it was... it was some sort of Tory chap who was gonna talk about something or another and I thought, oh well, yeah, I'll go and have a look. Anyway, a chap came in and he was introduced and we had a little gossip and then this chap who had come in said "would you like to come have tea with me one day?" and I said "well, why not?" And I think it was the first time. I mean he was a total nutter, God bless him. He said "I'm going to marry you". I said "Well don't be silly, Dear". He was quite right, he did! My late husband was Scottish. We went to Glasgow. I had my first child in Glasgow. We returned to Leeds. I was busy. We have five daughters and two sons. So, I was quite busy This was taken in England. The two youngest were not born and then we came here. Early August 1959. It was not a very good journey. Youngest child, then a baby of, well he had his first birthday actually in August after we arrived. He developed pneumonia and he was very sick and most unfortunately the ship's doctor was magnificently arrayed in white uniform with medals and monocle and was always extremely drunk. So it wasn't really very reassuring. Fortunately, there was penicillin and a good nurse. Not a journey I'd like to repeat. The social setting that I found myself in when we got a house in Mont Albert... I don't know if Mont Albert means anything to you, but it definitely sort of middle middle, established... Many older people... respectable... superficially perfectly pleasant... 'dullsville'... emphasis on appearance. No opportunity of learning about Australia from the casual contacts of the neighborhood. There wasn't even a public library in Box Hill. No public library. How do you find out about the country? Well... buy "The Age" but... Listen to "Blue Hills". There was a lot of learning to do and not actually many resources. I remember John came home one day and he said "you know, you can do a part time degree". I did the usual sort of bitter and twisted "Oh in my spare time, I suppose, Dear" And he said, "Well, oh okay, think about it because if you stay concentrated on the children - which you've got more than enough to do - but if you do that, they are going to grow up in an entirely different culture from the one that you brought with you. If you're not awfully careful, you're gonna be stuck... Why not give it a go?" When John said do a part-time degree - and that was extraordinarily enlightened. So, I did actually start French which was perfectly manageable because first year French here was more or less a rerun of the high school student French that I'd done at school and then I found I could do it and it was fine and one thing lead to another and then I was appointed to a lectureship at Monash. Taught in the Politics Department and first year politics and also I've developed a course in urban politics. So, I've actually published quite a bit on art history, but really I'm basically a political scientist. Honours in Political Science from the University of Melbourne. I've got a Masters in Art History from the University of Melbourne. I've got a PhD from Monash in Politics and I've got a PhD from the ANU in Art History In Australia, it's only fairly recently that you didn't have to resign when you got married. So that women no longer are in the domestic box as it were, and I think that the sharing of childcare has changed very substantially. The fathers are much more hands-on than they used to be. My grandsons for example are, as fathers, totally different from my late husband. I mean, God bless him, he was absolutely marvelous and I was devoted to him, but as a hands-on father he was terrible. He couldn't change a nappy. He couldn't do anything. That that wasn't him, but whereas my grandsons, they're absolutely wonderful. That's one good consequence. I think women now do have additional strains because you've got your work pressure, you've got your home pressures, and an awful lot does depend on the extent of which there is sharing of the chores and it's usually very unequal. I think we've been treading water since the election that gave us, God help us, Abbott and we've just been treading water and... But you can't you can't stop the virus by treading water... although I think by and large on the whole they've handled the virus thing pretty well. Climate change, they are absolutely appalling but if you can't get it top down, bottom up is happening quite significantly and I think they're being pushed in the direction of, let's say, treating the present situation as a climate emergency. I think that is coming... organized - not through social media. Social media is just... social media makes me frightened because I think of Trump. We're living in a very... I think the polite word is "challenging situation". Not actually very cheerful prospects. I mean, you've got clowns like self-interested, idiotic people like Boris in England. You you've got dangerous maniacs like Trump in the States. You've got a marketing man in Australia, God help us. To be 100 doesn't matter. What matters is the degree to which you suffer from disabilities, the extent which those disabilities can be compensated for, and the extent to which you have the sort of support you need in order to live the life that you need or would like to live. I suffer from macular degeneration and I have injections in my eye. Now, I pay for that. It's not on national health. If I couldn't afford to pay for it, I would be getting drops which would mean I wouldn't be able to read. Now, that's not fair. But it doesn't mean that I say, "Okay, I won't do it". I've got the money. I'll use it. But it's still not fair. You see, now my little great grandson who is Katie's grandson... He'd be starting school in February... And if he asked me something and I say "I'm sorry my love I don't know", he gives me a stern look and says, "Look it up!" Well, ok, I can... And that's something that I think is tremendously important. If somebody would only listen to me, the one thing that older people need nowadays is that, before you retire from work, before you get the pension, you should be given the opportunity of actually becoming computer literate because if you're not computer literate, you're **** Sorry, lop that out. But it's true. I've got friends whose only access to the world - they're not quite as old as me but you know, roughly my generation... They've got the radio. They've got a telephone. Come on! Nowadays? That's not a lifeline. It's a shocker! If that message goes to somebody who listens then I haven't wasted my time. You see, because if you're not basically computer literate, you can't keep up, and so things like Zoom and WhatsApp... I've got a friend. I can't send her photographs because she hasn't got a computer. Whereas with WhatsApp I'm exchanging photographs and things with my granddaughter who is living on the top of a mountain in France... Different world.