Mem's a Boomer. Why her generation drove social change and isn't just about house prices

Younger generations often vocalise their resentment towards Baby Boomers and their inaction on climate policy, their hold on property and economic prosperity, but the work that Boomers have done to create positive changes in society is often overlooked.

an older woman sitting at a table wearing a scarf

Mem was considered a 'rule breaker' when she stood her ground about not wanting to marry as a single mother. Source: SBS

Baby Boomers are much maligned, but what Millennials mightn't know is how much their parents' generation pushed boundaries for social change. Insight speaks to trailblazing Boomers who broke taboos - from religion to gender and sex - and we ask, how much have things changed? Watch Thanks Boomers on .

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Thanks, Boomers

episode Insight • 
Current Affairs • 
51m
episode Insight • 
Current Affairs • 
51m
Mem Harris and Tricia Harper are from the Baby Boomer generation — often blamed for key issues such as climate change and housing affordability. However, experts say those born between 1946 and 1964 played a crucial role in fighting for social change and breaking taboos.

Harris says her lack of respect for social and religious customs started after her mother was sent to a psychiatric hospital. Her still-married father, unable to divorce at the time, moved his girlfriend into the family home after her mother left.

"Catholic women whose husbands wanted to get rid of them in the 1960s and 70s couldn't divorce them because that was unheard of. It was taboo." Harris told Insight.

When she was 13, Harris recalls coming home from school to her mother being interviewed by a psychiatrist, who told her that he was there to assess her mother's mental state.

She also recalls her father, a practicing Catholic, saying her mother was mentally unstable and needed to leave the family home.
Black and white photograph of two women standing together. There is a tree and large wooden shed behind them.
Mem Harris and her mother. Source: SBS
"A week later when I got home mum wasn't there. Dad said, 'your mother doesn't live here anymore, she won’t be coming back' and that’s the only explanation I ever got from him. I was being a little Catholic mouse, I didn’t ask questions."

Four years later, Harris' mother died in her sleep.

Once she was an adult, Harris says she broke many of the social norms in the 1970s in protest against her father’s behaviour.

"I started breaking the rules. I didn't shave my legs, I didn't shave my armpits, I didn't behave myself," she said.

When Harris became pregnant with her daughter she was unmarried and living with her boyfriend, much to her father's disapproval.

"I moved in with my boyfriend, I wasn’t going to marry him. I didn't want to marry because marriage was what my father did and you don’t want to go down there."
A black and white photo of a woman with her daughter
Mem Harris and her daughter Nat. Source: SBS

OK, Boomer

Online trends such as 'Boomer bashing' and the hashtag 'OK, Boomer' are popularised by younger generations vocalising their frustrations over the influence Boomers have had on society, resenting their perceived inaction on climate policy and their hold on property and economic prosperity.

But generational researcher and demographer Mark McCrindle says Boomers deserve credit for ushering in massive social change in the 60s and 70s.

By rejecting the conservative attitudes of their parents' generation, Boomers transformed society by pushing back against social attitudes and norms and breaking taboos.
"You know, there's that phrase, 'OK, Boomer', which sort of implies 'you wouldn't understand'. But this is the generation that brought around the social trends that created the platforms in which young people today continue to innovate and adapt," McCrindle told Insight.

"Often that term is used of anyone of any age, even towards young people if they can't quite manage a technology or they're stuffing up. But the irony is, it's the Baby Boomers who ushered in the technology.

"They were at the helm of the technological transformation in the 1970s. So the Baby Boomers actually steered through more technology, adapted to more technological and social change than any other generation."

McCrindle says younger generations, may not realise how much Boomers paved the way for social change by fighting for women’s rights, gay rights, civil rights and social equality.
a black and white photo of women sitting around a table
Tricia and the Council for Single Mothers and Children in 1976. Source: SBS

How Boomers fought against the stigma of single motherhood

When Tricia Harper returned to Australia from London in 1969 as a single mother with her baby daughter, she opened Melbourne's The Age newspaper and read an article that stated the bottom groups on the social ladder, which included derelict men and unmarried mothers.

"It was very prominently featured," Harper told Insight.
"I was single with a child and often attracted the label 'unmarried mother' ... there was still a lot of stigma, labelling and discrimination against women who had become pregnant and decided to keep their child."

Harper had been living independently and working as a teacher when she decided to resist the intense societal pressure at the time to give her baby up for adoption. She kept her daughter Ruth despite family and friends voicing their disapproval.
an old photo of a woman and a baby
Tricia Harper and her daughter Ruth in 1969. Source: SBS
This disapproval motivated Harper to group together with other unmarried mothers to form a group, The Council for Single Mothers and her Child, that would advocate for change.

"We wanted to abolish the illegitimacy ... we wanted to change the Family Law Act, and get better child support payments. They were some of our key goals, as well as moving to eliminate stigma, get rid of labels," Tricia said.
a group of older women
Tricia Harper (pictured far left) helped found the Victorian Council for the Single Mother and her Child (CSMC). Source: SBS
Harper was part of making that change through her work at The Council for Single Mothers and her Child alongside other Baby Boomers who supported the revision of the Family Law Act in 1975 to include 'no-fault divorce', the establishment of the Family Court of Australia, and allow the Family Court to include matters relating to ex-nuptial children and their families.

She believes the stigma around being a single mother is now gone thanks to the advocacy and changes the members pushed for.

This article was updated on 5 April 2024.

And for more stories head to – a new podcast series from SBS, hosted by Kumi Taguchi. From sex and relationships to health, wealth, and grief Insightful offers deeper dives into the lives and first person stories of former guests from the acclaimed TV show, Insight.
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6 min read
Published 11 March 2024 6:06am
By Alex Tarney, Julia Abbondanza
Source: SBS



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