Women to the Front

Heather Sheard was a Victorian secondary school teacher and Assistant Principal. After retiring she researched the history of Victoria’s Maternal & Child Health Centres for a Master’s degree at the University of Melbourne, published as All the Little Children: the story of Victoria’s Baby Health Centres in 2007 and re-printed in 2017. Her PhD, also undertaken at Melbourne was a biography of Dr Vera Scantlebury Brown published in 2016 as A Heart Undivided: the Life of Dr Vera Scantlebury Brown, 1889-1946. During her PhD research she was captivated by the stories of a number of largely unheralded Australian women doctors who served during the Great War and determined to write about their experiences and contribution.
Heather has written articles for The Conversation, Spirit of Progress, City of Kingston and Chiron and chapters in Founders, Firsts and Feminists, Women Leaders in Twentieth Century Australia, 2011; Strength of Mind: 125 Years of Women in Medicine, ed. 2014 and Women Doctors: Proving their Worth in Compassion and Courage: Doctors and Dentists at War, 2015.
Heather lives in Elwood and has a ‘petite’ holiday cottage near the wineries of Burgundy, France.

Ruth Lee has taught Australian history and academic writing at Deakin University, Geelong for 25 years; her major research interest has been documenting women’s history. Researching the life of Dr Mary De Garis, she was awarded her PhD at Deakin University 2011 and went on to write the biography Woman War Doctor: The Life of Mary De Garis, Australian Scholarly Publishing, 2014, which was commended by the Royal Historical Society of Victoria’s Community History awards, Centenary of World War One category, 2015.
She has contributed articles to the University of Melbourne’s Medical History Museum exhibition catalogues (2013 and 2015) and entries for The Encyclopedia of Women and Leadership in Twentieth-Century Australia (online) (2014).
Ruth lives on the Bellarine Peninsula, Victoria.