Gertrude Cowle

Awarded for service to business; community advocacy and inclusion

15 January 1905 – 3 July 1988

Entered on roll: 2023

"The challenge of the new woman"

Gertrude Cowle passed the Junior Public Examination for university entrance in 1921 and enrolled in the Commerce Diploma at the University of Tasmania where there was staunch male opposition to women attending the university.

After four years of study, Gertrude was the first female accountant from the University. Gertrude commenced work in her father’s accountancy firm, Reynolds and Cummins, in 1925, where she worked as a senior accountant until the late 1930s. The gender pay gap was evident. In 2000, accountant Ray Wilson CPA, who spent his early accountancy career at the practice, recalled: “Your mother taught us all she knew, and her father paid her half the wage we received”.

Following five years of work experience required for membership, Gertrude successfully sat and passed the entrance examination for the Commonwealth Institute of Accountants and was admitted as an Associate Member on 6 August 1928. She was the second female to join and one of 11 female Associates at the time.

When Gertrude married Edward Cowle in 1938, marriage meant she could no longer practice as an accountant and auditor. The couple moved to Old Beach where Gertrude learned many new skills as a farmer, and later hotelier. As was customary in marriages at the time, financial responsibilities were handed over to Edward. Gertrude continued to use her accountancy skills as an honorary auditor to various committees, clubs, women’s groups, and other organisations. In 1956, Gertrude returned to paid work as the bookkeeper for the Scout Association of Tasmania, in Hobart.

Gertrude was passionate about women’s rights and was an active member of the Business and Professional Women’s Association (BPWA) in Hobart and later Queensland. Her particular interest was affirmative action and workplace equality. In 1977, she travelled to Helsinki as a member of the BPWA International Congress, The Challenge of the New Woman. Gertrude often used a quote from the congress:

“Only when women trust women the way men trust men, will women really get somewhere”.