Jean Fleming Arnot oral history interview by Rosemary Block

MLOH 162

fonds

20 June 1994

Nonmusical Sound Recordings, Oral Histories

412015

Digitised

1 audiocassette (1 hr., 2 min.) - 10 × 7 cm, 4 mm tape

Jean Fleming Arnot, M.B.E. (1903-1995) was born in 1903 in Pymble, Sydney, the daughter of a Scottish accountant. She was educated at Fort Street High School, Sydney, and she went to work at the Public Library, now the State Library of New South Wales, in 1921, when she was just 18 years old. Jean Arnot rose to be Head Cataloguer at the Library and retired in 1968. During the 47 years Jean Arnot worked in the Library she taught in the Library School. She also worked in the country circulation department and was instrumental in setting up libraries for prisons and childrens' homes. In 1937 she joined the New South Wales Coucil of Action for Equal Pay and also the Public Service Association executive. She campaigned vigorously for equal pay for women. When, in 1959 nurses and librarians were excluded from the pay increase under the Industrial Artbitration (Female Rates) Amendment Act Jean Arnot fought even harder. Finally the law was amended to grant equal pay for equal work to all women. She was also the president of the National Council of Women in New South Wales and also of the Australian Federation of Business and Professional Women. In 1993 in honour of her ninetieth birthday, the inaugural Jean Arnot Luncheon was held to honour her and other older women who had been active in the community. Since her death in 1995 the luncheon is still held, now in memoriam.

This interview deals with Jean Arnot's involvement with the National Council of Women in Australia. She became interested in the Council when she was a member of the Koorora Club which had started as an auxiliary for St Luke's Hospital, Sydney, and ran for 40 years. She was most influenced by Ruby Board and was persuaded to stand for the presidency in 1960. When the Council was 75 years old Jean Arnot wrote its history with the help of Doris Mitchell. The contact with Councils in other states was of great interest to her. Jean Arnot was also president of the Business and Professional Women's Club and although she was a member of the Library Association, this gave her further opportunity to connect with other professional women.

In copyright:
Please acknowledge:: Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales and Courtesy copyright holder.

The description of this material has been supplied from the Oral History Digitisation Program, undertaken 2014 to 2017, of the Library's oral history collections.

Copy available at CYMLOH 162/1
MLOH 162/1 Side A: Recorded on 20 June 1994

MLOH 162/1 Side B: Recorded on 20 June 1994
MLOH 162/1 Side A: Interviewee's voice is in left speaker, interviewer's voice is in right speaker. Occasionally both voices are in right speaker and volume decreases. Background noise at 29:10-29:17.

MLOH 162/1 Side B: Interviewee's voice is in left speaker, interviewer's voice is in right speaker. Volume of interviewee's voice fluctuates. Occasional background noise. Interview ends abruptly at end of tape.
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Interviewer: Block, Rosemary
Interviewee: Arnot, Jean Fleming, 1903-1995