Six of 10 new Companions of the Order of Australia, including Dawn Fraser, are women, with Christine Milne and Jennifer Westacott made Officers

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

For the first time women have outnumbered men in the list of people receiving the top Queen’s birthday honours.

Six out of the 10 Australians named as Companions of the Order of Australia (AC) on Monday are women.

The swimming legend Dawn Fraser, the federal court judge Catherine Branson, and the former Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation deputy chair Erica Smyth are among those honoured.

Of the 68 people made an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO), just under half were women, including the Macquarie Dictionary publisher Susan Butler, the author Kate Grenville, the former Greens leader Christine Milne and the Business Council of Australia chief executive, Jennifer Westacott.

The fashion designer Jenny Kee, the Paralympic gold medallist Kurt Fearnley and the comedian and writer Tom Gleisner were also among those made an AO.

Smyth, recognised for her services to the community through her roles with charities and scientific organisations, said the rise in the number of women receiving the highest honours reflected a growing appreciation of the role they play in society.

“Often what women do traditionally has gone under the radar and now we are recognising more and more that there’s so much everyone in our community does to make it work and women are part of that,” she said.

Smyth, who has more than 40 years’ experience in the mineral and petroleum industries, said everyone she had worked with in her career should share her pride in being made an AC.

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“I would like to cut it up into little pieces and give everyone a piece,” she said.

Of the 778 awards and appointments in the Order of Australia’s general division, fewer than half – 289 – were women.

The governor general, Sir Peter Cosgrove, has led a push in recent years to encourage people to nominate more women.

Women made up just over a third of all nominations for this year’s Queen’s birthday honours, slightly more than the 31.8% considered for Australia Day honours. Nominations of women are 72% higher than five years ago.

In Britain, 41% of those who received the highest Queen’s birthday honours this year were women.