by Meggie Palmer, Journalist at Women’s Agenda and Founder of PepTalkHer and CEO of Sliding Door Media.
Mate . . . is not technically synonymous with male.
But that’s a mistake our diplomatic corps in Washington DC seems to have made when you consider their US/Australian Patrons of Mateship list.
It’s a group of 15 prestigious Australians and Americans who, apparently, embody the spirit of mateship.
DFAT defined it further:
“The Mateship program is a public diplomacy initiative run by the Embassy of Australian in Washington DC. The program aims to highlight Australia’s strong military alliance with the United States over the past 100 years in the lead up to the centenary of the battle of Hamel on 4 July 2018.”
Essentially, it’s a non partisan list of former Presidents, Prime Ministers, Ambassadors and a sportsman – basketballer Matthew Dellavedova.
Malcolm Turnbull, John Howard, Kevin Rudd are all Patrons of Mateship – why did Julia Gillard not make the cut?
For the first time, Australia has a female Foreign Minister and a female head of DFAT. But it seems the same monumental change isn’t filtering through at an embassy level, or certainly not under Joe Hockey. (He was also at the helm for the prominent Australian and American business leaders summit in February where 8% of invitees were women.)
https://womensagenda.com.au/latest/15-prestigious-australians-americans-apparently-embody-the-spirit-of-mateship-theyre-all-men/