Dame Constance D'Arcy - surgeon and forgotten fighter for women’s rights

Today you seldom hear of Constance but when she died a thousand people came to her funeral. Born in 1879, Dame Constance D’Arcy was a world renown obstetrician and gynaecologist. And all her life she was a fighter – a very polite one – for the rights of women. During the Great Depression Australia had one of the worst maternal death rates in the world and Constance was determined to change this. She struggled for women’s rights in all fields, including equal pay, but her crusade was to provide professional care for expectant mothers so that they would stop dropping like flies in childbirth. Along the way she was elected to the Senate of the University of Sydney and was appointed Deputy Chancellor of the University – unheard of roles for a woman at the time. In 1935 she was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire. A devout Catholic, in 1940, the Pope honoured her with the Cross Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice for her services to medicine, surgery and women. As the Angel says, 'There should be a film made about her.' Script and production by Nicole Steinke Sound engineering and additional sound design by Judy Rapley The Angel read by Ainslie McGlynn Dame Constance read by Anna Messariti Male characters read by Jeremy Waters Archival research by Neil Arber Music and SFX from Epidemic Sound