In 1966 Hermione Burkitt became the first woman to be a Committees' Clerk at UNSW. Upon joining the staff of the Secretariat she is reported to have caused a stir when she started taking the minutes at faculty meetings, as until then it was a job for men only. From 1968, Burkitt was the committees' clerk exclusively for the Faculties of Medicine and Biological Sciences. 'I was the first woman to work in this section in this capacity, and it was four years before another woman joined the staff of the Secretariat', she said. Before coming to UNSW, she worked for 11 years at the University of Sydney where she was secretary to the University's first woman Registrar. After retiring in 1980, she took minutes for the Chancellor's Advisory Committee for the UNSW Ensemble and was involved in a new museum being established by the St James Church.
