A conversation with Jean McCaughey

In a conversation with McCaughey Centre staff in October 2006 Jean McCaughey provided the following reflections on her life, her marriage with Davis and her thoughts on the role of social research centres in contributing to social and political change.

“I thought when I married Davis we would be for a while, five or six years, in a country parish, and we’d live in a nice big stone house with a lovely garden in a country town. I would have been very happy doing that, I think.

“But it didn’t turn out like that.”

What it did turn out like was a life in which the couple opened their door to everybody: students, politicians, aristocrats, artists, academics and activists. Their open-door policy continued after they moved to Victoria’s Government House in 1986, ushering in more wide ranging hospitality and less pomp and ceremony.

The path that carried them together to Government House started in Belfast, where they met in the late 1930s at Queen’s University, where Jean was a final-year medical student. They married in Belfast in1940 and immediately after the war moved to London for seven years, where Davis worked for the Student Christian Movement. The couple, with their five children, moved to Melbourne in 1953, when Davis was appointed Professor of New Testament Studies in the Theological Hall at Ormond College, the University of Melbourne. Among the posts Davis went on to hold were Deputy Chancellor of the University of Melbourne, inaugural President of the Uniting Church and Governor of Victoria.

Jean balanced the logistics of raising their five children with her academic career and social activism. She studied computer programming in the 1960s in London and, as a Research Fellow at the Melbourne Institute for Applied Economic and Social Research, worked for 10 years with Professor Ronald Henderson on the path-breaking research on the extent and causes of poverty in Australia.

Later, Jean went on to become a Researcher at the Australian Institute for Family Studies, where she carried out social research on the needs and problems of families. Subsequently, she conducted a research project on homelessness for Hanover Welfare Services.

In the early 1990s, when aged in her late 70s, Jean and Ben Bodna were invited to co-chair People Together, a community-based, social research and advocacy project involving thousands of Victorians. Jean’s commitment to social causes, such as homelessness and the needs of East Timor, continue to be an important part of her life.

In reflecting on the choices she has made in her life, Jean noted the importance of supportive relationships in encouraging her involvement in social justice projects. “I think the things I have got into are because of the people who have asked me to do things I never thought I could do. And then helped me to do them.

"One of the invitations I was very pleased to receive was to be the first chairperson of the Key Centre for Women's Health in Society, at Melbourne University.

“I’ve just always been very interested in human relations, what works and what doesn’t, and what you can do about the things that don’t work . . . and I suppose my children would say my innate bossiness that I would want to do something about it."

For example, when the Brotherhood of St Laurence invited her to join their Board, “I thought, well, I can’t really take on anything else”. But, attracted by their work and their approach, she did. She found the board meetings stimulating and informative, and also relished the opportunity to mix with other board members at the local pub before the board meetings.

"It was a good place to make new friends who were involved in things that both of you were interested in.” These common interests included a deep concern for people who needed help and an aspiration to live responsibly.

For Jean, this meant more than living by anything as abstract as values. It had more to do with actions and, again, relationships “and to the claims that trying to live as a Christian keep you in mind of all the time. And how much I learnt from other people who were trying to live the same kind of way, probably better than me.

“So much of life depends on relationships.”

Which leads her to her lifelong relationship with Davis. “I had a wonderful marriage. I can’t say never a cross word but I had a wonderful marriage.”

Asked to characterise her partnership, Jean sums up their 64-year marriage. “Well, I suppose we were in love with each other. I fell in love with Davis at first sight. And we never ceased to be in love with each other.”

The romantic words are tinged with wryness: “We were pretty critical of each other too, but.”

When Davis was appointed Governor in 1986, the couple turned Government House into their home and treated their staff as friends. They swapped the official white Rolls Royce for a more modest, locally made Ford and they welcomed a wide mix of people to functions. Jean continued her social research work and activism. “Sometimes it meant I had to get up at 5 o’clock in the morning to do a couple of hours before breakfast. Frequently. But I was very glad of all those connections, It kept my feet on the ground.”

Jean used her official speeches to raise awareness of social welfare issues. “You don’t always want people to feel you’re trying to do good all the time but I always tried to mention one or two things that might stick.”

During this six-year period, Jean kept working with the Brotherhood of St. Laurence and various church groups as well as conducting a major study of homeless families for Hanover Welfare Services.

In 1990, with Ben Bodna, Jean founded People Together, a community-based social research and advocacy project involving many thousands of Victorians in the identification of key community social issues and concerns. Asked to take on this daunting challenge at the age of 78, Jean had been hesitant but egged on, rose to the challenge. “I met Ben Bodna and we said, ‘I’ll do it if you’ll do it’.” It was a partnership that continued for eight years.

Looking back, it was her work with Professor Ronald Henderson that had the greatest impact upon Jean and her peers at the Melbourne Institute, she said. “We can never forget about poverty. It’s a life-changing experience, to recognise that there are a whole lot of people through no fault of their own who live in the sort of poverty that shouldn’t exist in this affluent country.”

What were her hopes for the McCaughey Centre in its work? “Perhaps it can help people who foster the idea of community, because it’s people, in the end, who help to create community.

“But I think we also have to be aware of the things that make community difficult, like the widening gap between the well off and not well off. I think we have to make people aware that this is a bad thing for all of us, this widening gap.” Researchers have important work to do and moralising is not part of their job description. “I think the job of researchers is to be rigorous in their work and to make people in the world realise a bit more about what’s happening.

“Then they are free to choose whether they will hear it or not.”

Jean concludes, “I don’t think it’s the job of research institutes to moralise but I think it’s their job to make clear to people what’s happening in their society, and that there’s a role for them to play.

“Everybody can do something.”