Florence McCarthy - Voices Across Time

Name: Florence McCarthy - Voices Across Time
Start: 2026-06-04T18:00:00+10:00
End: 2026-06-04T18:00:00+10:00
Location: Upstairs at Gleebooks

About

6pm for 6:30pm Thursday 4 June

Florence McCarthy in conversation with Sabrin Farooqui, moderated by Margaret Vickers

In the early sixties in Comilla, now Bangladesh, many village people thought that “women don’t learn.” Some thought “why should they?”

The book explores what happened when women took the initiative to challenge traditional patterns of subordination and seclusion to take up the opportunity to learn. Facing extreme disapproval from family and others, some women undertook to join training classes in order “to earn a few pennies” to meet family needs. Over time, however, their acquisition of knowledge and skills transformed their abilities to take initiative, to earn money, to influence others, and to achieve status in their villages.

The accomplishments of these women in transforming their own lives and those of their families and other women is remarkable and engrossing. Their stories, preserved by the author, provide a window on the essential contribution of women to the history of Bangladesh. It deserves not to be lost.

From a farming family to Peace Corps Volunteer, Dr Florence McCarthy chose a career involving ten years of women’s development work in Bangladesh, including heading a Government section on women in agriculture. Since leaving Bangladesh, she has established academic Service-Learning in South and Southeast Asia, and new programs in refugee education in Australia.

Dr Sabrin Farooqui OAM was born and raised in Bangladesh and later came to Australia, where she completed her PhD at the University of Sydney. A strong advocate for social justice, she supports migrant settlement and assists women affected by domestic violence as President of the Cultural Diversity Network Incorporated.

Dr Margaret Vickers' 50 years in education began with science teaching, followed by appointments with the Commonwealth Government, the OECD and in the USA. As Education Professor at Western Sydney University (1999-2014) she created for-credit courses that delivered mentoring and support to refugee background students in the University and at local high schools.