To keep up to date with Madeline and her activism, follow them on Instagram at @madeline_rachel_price
1. What is your name and role?
My name is Madeline Price, and I'm the National Director of the One Woman Project. I also founded the organisation way back in 2013!
2. What does a typical day look like for you in your role as an OWP volunteer?
My role revolves around the monitoring and evaluation of our programs, supporting the National Team and State Directors in the implementation of our activities, legal compliance, and reporting to our Board of Directors.
A typical day for me is quite varied: my paid employment is in international development where I work Monday-Thursday, and I volunteer with the Australian Conservation Foundation on Fridays. In between, I do my volunteering with the One Woman Project! This might include smashing out some emails before work starts in the morning, a phone call check in with one of my National Team members over my lunch break, a coffee catch up with the local Queensland State Director after work, and then a couple of conference calls with the VIC Team and the National Team after dinner. Other days, it might just be a tonne of emails, and writing some policy documents or agendas for the upcoming Board of Directors meeting.
I am quite privileged that my role is predominantly remote and online - I can do my emails, calls and reporting writing from wherever I am located!
That being said, over March we had quite a few International Women's Day presentations and events, and it was great to visit some schools and organisations to talk about my passion for gender equality. It's great to get out from behind the computer some times!
3. What area of feminism are you most passionate about and why?
I am passionate about a lot of areas of feminism: intersectionality, preventing violence against women and girls, global education, trans rights, and more. But what each of these areas stems down to - and what my biggest passion is in feminism - is challenging and overcoming gendered roles and stereotypes. These gendered roles and stereotypes impact upon every aspect of patriarchy that feminism sets to dismantle, they influence the actions of our white settler colonial state, they reinforce racist and ableist ideas, they promote homophobia, biphobia and transphobia, and they lead to everyday discrimination and oppression in our communities. The ability to challenge, tackle and overcome these stereotypes (and the actions they perpetuate) is what I want to work towards.
4. You founded OWP, what are you most proud of the organisation achieving?
When we talk about success in society, people typically think of the numbers: how we have reached more than 32 000+ people with our five Rural Roadtrips, 160+ in-school workshops and 95+ events and activities.
But for me, what makes me most proud is seeing the journeys of our OWP volunteers. Of seeing the journeys of our facilitators, like Rosie and Caitlin, who delivered our in-school workshops and Seminar Series, and are now studying their postgraduate degrees abroad and making feminist changes in the global community. Or of Hannah, our former State Facilitator / Deputy Director, who is working in Tanzania in global health and is on our Board of Directors. Or of Linden, who started her journey with us as a participant in our high school Seminar Series, then as a high school intern, then as the High School Intern Coordinator, and is currently our National Director of People & Culture. It is the journeys of these volunteers - and many more! - who make me proud of the organisation, and the work that we do.
My goal is that every volunteer leaves us with more knowledge, skills and experiences than when they started (and more feminist friends!), and that their time with us supports them to achieve the next set of goals they aspire to - whether it be in their career, in personal fulfilment, or in simply engaging in feminist activism. That is what makes me proud.
5. What do you like to do outside of your OWP role?
I like to get outside! I hike regularly (I have two very energetic dogs - Franklin and Ellie - so you will regularly find me hiking with them), I camp as much as possible and I enjoy rock climbing! My favourite place in the world to go camping is K'Gari (the white settler name of which is Fraser Island), but I also undertook the Carnarvon Great Walk late last year, and could definitely spend another five days camping in remote isolation! That being said, one of the other things I enjoy doing outside of OWP is acknowledging my privilege and using it to dismantle systemic barriers, so this year I am focused on making my hobbies (such as camping and hiking), accessible for all. You can read more about the white supremacy entrenched in hiking here.
