The Media
I didn’t notice the constant pressure of the press always being around until I was no longer the wife of the Prime Minister. Then it was gone overnight and I realised what I had been dealing with. I could breathe again. – Sonia McMahon
The position of Prime Minister’s wife inevitably brings with it media attention and scrutiny. Since 1901 all the wives have had to deal with the press, albeit in varying degrees, and each has found it at times a blessing and a curse. For the first half of the 20th century the media respected their privacy but from the 1960s onwards it has become increasingly responsible for the way Prime Ministers’ wives are viewed by the public. The media can be friend or foe depending on what image they wish to portray. The women too have learned to harness the media for their own advantage and to promote their own causes. Both parties play a delicate balancing act which raises the question: just how far is the Prime Minister’s wife a political figure?
Sonia and Bill McMahon face the media at their Bellevue Hill home. Image courtesy of Lady Sonia McMahon.
Sonia and Bill McMahon face the media
Sonia and Bill McMahon pose with their children for the media on the lawns of their Bellevue Hill home.
Original cover from Woman’s Day, May 17, 1976. Courtesy of Tamie Fraser.
Tamie Fraser Speaks Out
Tamie Fraser talks about the delights and pitfalls of raising a family. The public, particularly women, were eager to hear the opinions and stories of Prime Ministers’ wives.
Cartoon courtesy of Heather Henderson, daughter of Pattie Menzies.
Pattie Menzies Cartoon
In 1996, then Prime Minister Paul Keating made critical comments about Sir Robert Menzies. Dame Pattie, normally a very private person, was quick to publicly respond and defend her husband. When this cartoon appeared she was delighted, saying that after all her years in the public eye ‘it was the first time I had a cartoon to myself’. – Heather Henderson.
