Lisbeth Bell (nee Hansen) (1975)
Reflecting back to my years in Queen’s College I enjoyed it greatly and am full of wonderful memories. It was the support the College gave you by creating a strong sense of family that I treasured the most. College gave you the opportunity to meet students from a wide range of study interest and backgrounds, many of whom are still close friends. I met my husband, Rod (Bell, Wyvern 1972), who had been a resident of Queen’s from 1972 to 74. We have two children both having been in Queen’s. (Jackson Bell 2004, Kara Statham nee Bell 2002). My daughter married a fellow Queen’s resident. (Paul Statham 2003)
1975 was the third year of women in College and males still outnumbered the women. Being a keen sports person meant being involved in all the sporting teams, inexperience didn’t count, they just needed to make up the numbers. Of course, post-game celebrations were all part of the fun.
Professionally I would not attribute a lot to my stay in Queen’s it was personally that I felt I benefited most. Being part of the College community, the support offered and the friendships I made flowed through to making the whole university experience both enjoyable and rewarding.
Reflecting back on being a woman in College, I did not have any bad experiences only positive ones. Times are slowly changing and through the experiences of our children we see there has been a positive shift towards greater equality and opportunities for women in the work place. This move becomes even more important as we see more families with both parents working full time and more women making up the workforce.
I have been retired for some years and our lives are kept busy with family, travel, gardening, keeping fit, crafting and following our favourite football team – Geelong. Whilst in College I studied a degree in Science and went on to complete a Bachelor of Teaching. I taught for a while and after having a family I went on to work in the family building company in an office management role.