Women like Joan Child didn't have a guidebook - they wrote it, says Prime Minister Julia Gillard.
Speaking at the state funeral of Australia's first female speaker, Ms Gillard says Ms Child was a woman who broke the mould of the male-dominated Australian Labor Party.
"For Joan, the Labor ethos was etched deep in her soul," she said. "She was a proud daughter of the Labor movement. "She worked in a factory. She worked as a cleaner.
She raised five boys alone." Ms Gillard spoke about how, when news photographers came to Ms Child's house to report on her 1974 election to federal parliament, she refused to adopt the domestic pose of a woman with a vacuum cleaner.
Instead, she raised a glass of champagne to toast prime minister Gough Whitlam's election win.
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"That was the photo that beamed down from the pages of the press: bold, defiant and just a little bit cheeky," Ms Gillard said.
Ms Child's state funeral on Tuesday also reflected her passion for politics and Melbourne, featuring music from "Keating! The Musical" and the Hawthorn Football Club song.
The religious centre was decorated with gold and brown signs which read: "Joan Child for Henty. Vote ALP". Ms Gillard said Ms Child had always been determined to be judged on her character. "She was an activist.
She understood Australian politics is essentially and fundamentally a contest of values," she said.
Speaking as one of the women "who walked through the door Joan so brilliantly opened", Ms Gillard said Ms Child's finest time was in the speaker's role.
She held the role from 1986 to 1989 under the Hawke government, and retired from parliament the following year. Ms Gillard said it was a time when the belief that women could do anything finally began to be realised in Australia's institutions.
"The most important thing of all, Joan gave us her example - the example of a smart, confident woman succeeding in the public sphere." Ms Child died on February 23, aged 91.
