About Dr. Mary Crawford

Mary Crawford has had a long career in Education.  She was a high school teacher for 20 years during which time she taught in Australia, UK and Cyprus.  She was the first Moderator for English in the Northern Territory and was also a member of the Senior Studies Board for English which set the curriculum for Senor Students.

In 1987 she was elected to the Australian House of Representatives as the MP for Forde and remained there as a member of the government until 1996.   During her time in the Australian Parliament she led the Crawford Committee which developed and implemented a National Policy on Child Care and established the Child Care Accreditation Council. She was instrumental in ensuring child care centres became part of tertiary institutions in Australia on University and TAFE campuses.  She was also responsible for the noted ‘Sticks and Stones’ Report which examined violence in schools and sought to establish a National policy.  Her work also led to the implementation of the national JET (Jobs, Education, and Training) scheme for women re-entering the workforce and she developed and implemented the first ‘women only ‘ Job clubs in Australia.  These gave individual case workers for women entering or re/entering the workforce.

In 1997 Mary was employed at Queensland University of Technology as a Lecturer in Government/Business relations in the School of Management in the Faculty of Business.  She developed and redesigned courses for students in both Undergraduate and Postgraduate programmes.  She also taught for QUT in Suzhou, China over a 3 year period, as well as in Hong Kong over a 2 year period.

Mary was awarded her PhD in 2008 for work on ‘Gender and the Australian Parliament’ where she explored the way in which the Australian parliament is gendered as male but much of its processes and practices remain hidden. Her further research explores the way in which the gendering of organisations can impact on the way in which policies are developed and implemented and hence create barriers for women.

Her current work is with women victims of domestic violence and exploring frameworks which can be useful in breaking the barriers people face while escaping violence and seeking to gain meaningful and sustainable employment.
She is an active member of the Australasian Political Studies Association and Chairs the panel which awards the annual essay prize for ‘Women and Politics’. She is on the National Board of the National Foundation of Australian Women which researches issues pertaining to Australian women and makes submissions to government, is Queensland Secretary of the Australian Federation of University Women which awards scholarships to women for postgraduate and undergraduate education, a committee member of the Australasian Parliamentary Study Group and a Co- Convenor of an International conference on ‘Women and Politics’ which is now in its 6th year.

Mary is currently a Visitor in the School of Management at QUT and an Adjunct Fellow in the Faculty of Business at Southern Cross University.