Grammar Gazette- Issue 2, 2010

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Kathleen Lilley was an intelligent, articulate and powerful educator whoworked ceaselessly and consciously for female empowerment through the educational process, inside or outside the classroom. Her career certainly has no luminous quality of saintliness but she was a woman who bestrode her administration ‘like a colossus’, and shaped the future of her school to a remarkable degree. The image of the School as an academic institution which enabled and encouraged young women to participate in public life, and not to see limits to their existence based on gender, must be considered the major legacy of the Lilley years and of Kathleen Lilley, herself. Meritocratic principles, excellence of performance, a hearty esprit de corps and the promotion of the protestant work-ethic as expressed in the motto, Nil sine labore were legacies of the Lilley administration. Kathleen Mitford Lilley’s contribution and significance to female education in this state could certainly be regarded as a feminist exemplar.

Through her years as Headmistress, principle not popularity was Kathleen Lilley’s guide — not a comfortable position but one which certainly earned her the respect of students, parents and her boards. Probably because of this great strength of character, strong impressions of her educational philosophy remain with those who knew her within the school context. Many Old Girls can cite a bon mot which had a lasting impact. These usually illustrate Lilley’s reasons for fiercely demanding maximum effort in academic pursuits for, although she thought women the ‘superior’ sex, she knew from personal experience just how important academic qualifications were. Her overt and covert messages to her students were that women could do anything — if they had intelligence and diligence — and would be best served if they acquired university qualifications. Women from across her era believe that Miss Lilley was a remarkable woman who encouraged them to think beyond the confines of traditional female stereotypes and are grateful to her.

Felicity Williams DEPUTY PRINCIPAL

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