Jill Ker Conway: The Road from Coorain

 Word Count: 510

From The Road from Coorain by Jill Ker Conway

“There was no getting around that the work was there and had to be done, and so I fell early into a role it took me many years to escape, the person in the family who would rise to the occasion, no matter the size of the task” (157).

“Presented with this plan and a request to finance it, her startled woolbrokers remonstrated with her about the hazards of a woman taking charge of her own affairs” (167).

“Some of my first lessons in feminism came from her outraged conversations with the hapless valuation agent sent to inventory [...] her original investment in furniture, linen, silver and household equipment was now merged with my fathers estate. No value was attributed either to the contributions she had made to the enterprise through the investment of her capital fifteen years before” (168).

Jill had to grow up at a very young age. Her brothers had gone off to school during a very difficult time, a huge drought and World War II. They did not have enough hands to work their farm and therefore Jill, at age 8, had to step up and help. She began to feel as though the work required of her was too much. She names this story “The Road from Coorain” and that is exactly the way she sees her childhood. She saw it as a burden to get away from. Especially once her father died, her situation only got worse and when offered the option to leave it all and to live a more normal life by going to school, she immediately agreed. Therefore her childhood is the road from Coorain. 

In Jill’s story, since her family was struggling so much, there were no specific gender roles. She was not only allowed but told to work in what might be seen as traditionally male jobs. However, once her father died, Jill began to understand how the world sees women. When her mother decided she was going to keep and run the farm, others told her that there were too many hazards for a woman to “take charge of her own affairs”. But the problems truly came when her mother was told that her original investment was merged with her father’s estate and they could not receive any money from it. Jill saw how necessary this money would have been for them and through her mother’s conversations saw the injustice that was done to them. Marriage, in this time, meant that the woman ceased to be her own person legally and therefore all the property was Jill’s father’s property. However, the people around Jill and her mother were a huge help to them, and provided them with safety and encouragement, including the encouragement to ultimately leave the farm. Many of the issues seem to be more legal than social in Jill’s story, however legality always has an influence on the social aspect of things. It is important to remember that their situation could have been so much worse if it wasn't for the kind people involved in aiding them.