What I've Learnt - Eve Mahlab AO

As we celebrate International Women’s Day and an extraordinary Newsweek with gender and alleged sexual assault issues front and center, I’m thrilled to feature Lawyer, trailblazer, women's rights advocate, and philanthropist Eve Mahlab AO, a successful businesswoman who has worked to improve the lives of women in Australia for decades.

A member of the Co-ordinating Committee of the Women's Electoral Lobby in Victoria from 1972-1976, she was a member of the Victorian Government Committee of Inquiry into the Status of Women, Businesswoman of the Year, and was awarded an Order of Australia in the Officer category for 'service to government, business, and the community, particularly to women'.

Impressive and impactful, Eve is a first-generation Holocaust survivor who credits much of her determination to both her history and her heritage. Reflecting on this she says,

“My family is Jewish and quite simply I'd be dead if my grandfather had not been able to put together the money that enabled us to exit Nazi Austria in 1938. He was already detained in Buchenwald which became a concentration camp and we having been evicted from our home were hidden on the top floor of a Viennese hotel. I was only 2 years old but it's left me with anxiety about powerlessness and a sense of identity with other powerless people especially women.

There is also something in the Jewish history and culture that makes us want to add value to the world …..to make it a better place for more people. It could be because of our long history as scapegoats when things go wrong or just an understanding of being a minority and consequential powerlessness.”

Together with philanthropist Jill Reichstein they founded “Australians investing in Women” originally called The Australian Women Donors Network. It aims to persuade the philanthropic sector to give more funds to women or to projects that were demonstrably inclusive of women. Most giving is ungendered - to sport, medical research, to homelessness, to education. It assumed that the ability to access the benefits of a project funded by philanthropy are the same for women as for men but often they are not. So philanthropists have to be Genderwise and ensure that projects they fund are designed to reach women as well as men.

“I think politicians need Genderwise training to understand how their policies and decisions affect women differently to men. I don't think they understand how the “Me Too” movement has given women of all political persuasions the courage to speak out about the indignities and anxieties that affect young women today.

Until there are more liberal women elected to parliament, I think the Liberal Party should appoint a professional feminist advocate to inform their policy development and decision making and change their political culture.”

With accusations of rape culture in our parliament and our schools, Eve is forthright about sex education - “boys/men need to learn that silence does not mean consent and girls/women need to learn that some men can think that silence means consent.”

Deborah's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/what.ive.learnt/

Mind, Film and Publishing: https://www.mindfilmandpublishing.com/

Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/what-ive-learnt/id153556330

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3TQjCspxcrSi4yw2YugxBk

Buzzsprout: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1365850