Leading The way
Australian Women’s Weekly NZ|February 2019

Their paths may be different, but Louise Nicholas, Dame Jenny Shipley and Dame Margaret Sparrow share one thing: a determination to stand up and make a change. In an exclusive extract from a new book by Margie Thomson, we profile the three Kiwi women, whose influential work will have a long-lasting impact.

Louise Nicholas
Leading The way

There’s a scene in the movie Consent: The Louise Nicholas Story that finally helped Louise fit one of the final jigsaw pieces into her understanding of what happened to her. When she first saw it, she burst into tears. “I realised. For the first time, I understood.”

It’s the scene that depicts when Louise, aged 19, was offered a car ride from a police officer she knew. He said he’d take her home, but instead he took her to a flat where three other police officers were waiting. She sees the men waiting. She realises what’s going to happen. “Get out of the car, Lou,” she’s told. She says she doesn’t want to. She’s even taken her shoes off so she can run. But she looks beaten.

The question she’s asked herself, and was asked, challengingly, by lawyers in court, is: “Why did you go into that flat if you knew what was going to happen?” The film-maker, Robert Sarkies, explains it, powerfully, visually: 19-year-old Louise is in the car, utterly diminished. And then, just for a minute, we see that it’s no longer the young woman there, but the 13-year-old girl Louise had been the first time she was raped, the first time a grown man ordered her to do what she was told, and out of fear she obeyed.

“It was little Louise sitting in that car,” Louise says today. “When I saw that, I knew this was the reason why. It wasn’t the 19-year-old following, it was that little girl again, doing what she was told. There were no words I could find to thank those people that made the movie because they had answered the question I could never answer, and so I still carried that blame. But I didn’t have to carry it any more.”

この記事は Australian Women’s Weekly NZ の February 2019 版に掲載されています。

7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。

この記事は Australian Women’s Weekly NZ の February 2019 版に掲載されています。

7 日間の Magzter GOLD 無料トライアルを開始して、何千もの厳選されたプレミアム ストーリー、9,000 以上の雑誌や新聞にアクセスしてください。

AUSTRALIAN WOMEN’S WEEKLY NZのその他の記事すべて表示
PRETTY WOMAN
Australian Women’s Weekly NZ

PRETTY WOMAN

Dial up the joy with a mood-boosting self-care session done in the privacy of your own home. It’s a blissful way to banish the winter blues.

time-read
3 分  |
July 2024
Hitting a nerve
Australian Women’s Weekly NZ

Hitting a nerve

Regulating the vagus nerve with its links to depression, anxiety, arthritis and diabetes could aid physical and mental wellbeing.

time-read
5 分  |
July 2024
The unseen Rovals
Australian Women’s Weekly NZ

The unseen Rovals

Candid, behind the scenes and neverbefore-seen images of the royal family have been released for a new exhibition.

time-read
2 分  |
July 2024
Great read
Australian Women’s Weekly NZ

Great read

In novels and life - there's power in the words left unsaid.

time-read
2 分  |
July 2024
Winter dinner winners
Australian Women’s Weekly NZ

Winter dinner winners

Looking for some thrifty inspiration for weeknight dinners? Try our tasty line-up of budget-concious recipes that are bound to please everyone at the table.

time-read
3 分  |
July 2024
Winter baking with apples and pears
Australian Women’s Weekly NZ

Winter baking with apples and pears

Celebrate the season of apples and pears with these sweet bakes that will keep the cold weather blues away.

time-read
7 分  |
July 2024
The wines and lines mums
Australian Women’s Weekly NZ

The wines and lines mums

Once only associated with glamorous A-listers, cocaine is now prevalent with the soccer-mum set - as likely to be imbibed at a school fundraiser as a nightclub. The Weekly looks inside this illegal, addictive, rising trend.

time-read
10+ 分  |
July 2024
Former ballerina'sBATTLE with BODY IMAGE
Australian Women’s Weekly NZ

Former ballerina'sBATTLE with BODY IMAGE

Auckland author Sacha Jones reveals how dancing led her to develop an eating disorder and why she's now on a mission to educate other women.

time-read
7 分  |
July 2024
MEET RUSSIA'S BRAVEST WOMEN
Australian Women’s Weekly NZ

MEET RUSSIA'S BRAVEST WOMEN

When Alexei Navalny died in a brutal Arctic prison, Vladimir Putin thought he had triumphed over his most formidable opponent. Until three courageous women - Alexei's mother, wife and daughter - took up his fight for freedom.

time-read
8 分  |
July 2024
IT'S NEVER TOO LATE TO START
Australian Women’s Weekly NZ

IT'S NEVER TOO LATE TO START

Responsible for keeping the likes of Jane Fonda and Jamie Lee Curtis in shape, Malin Svensson is on a mission to motivate those in midlife to move more.

time-read
5 分  |
July 2024