Bendigo woman Eleanor Joyce wanted to study architecture at university but as a high school student in the 1970s, she was discouraged and told it was a man's career.
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She instead left school in year 10, married and had two children, who she brought up as a single mother for most of their childhoods, with all the challenges that posed.
But the sacrifices and hard work she has put into her children have not gone unnoticed.
Eleanor's daughter Natasha was one of thousands of people who shared their mothers' stories - and their gratitude - on social media this week using the now-viral hashtag #MyMum.
In 1985, after completing year 12, Eleanor and her children moved to Bendigo so she could attend the then-Bendigo College of Advanced Education to study social work, having been helped so much while living in Echuca.
But without any support systems in Bendigo, the costs of raising two children while studying were too high and she had to leave so she could work.
"Even though there was the pension, you could never live off that, that's why so many single mothers actually worked," Eleanor said.
Natasha is now midway through her PhD on childhood, death and faith on Bendigo's goldfields, but her path to tertiary education has not been easy.
She was first accepted into university at 18 to study biology at La Trobe University's Bundoora campus, but left because it was too difficult to study and earn enough.
But after 20 years of employment, she enrolled at La Trobe in Bendigo to study arts and completed honours before embarking on a PhD.
It was also her decision to remain unmarried and child-free, Natasha said, that gave her the flexibility to embark on her studies.
Natasha said her mother's experiences and the fact she did not get to complete university studies was a "huge motivation to do well".
"It's about making sure that I put the work in and do well enough that other people's investment in me is paid off," she said.
Natasha's brother entered the Army and went on to become a police officer.
Eleanor said she was proud of her "two fantastic kids" and what they had achieved.
"I may not have got to do it, but I made sure that they did, and support them in whatever endeavour they want to do... Because I brought them into the world, so it's my responsibility to make that positive journey," she said.
Eleanor said her mother would also be delighted by her grandchildren's achievements.
"It was my mum that always emphasised education was the only way out of poverty," she said.
"And if she could see [Natasha] and [my son] now, she'd just be so proud... She's the one who said, 'Education, education, education'."
Still a way to go
While most women have greater flexibility around work, education and parenting than previous generations, mothers are still overwhelmingly the parents who give up their careers or put them on hold to care for children.
Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show that in 2016-17, women made up 95 per cent of people who took parental leave as the primary care giver for the child, while 95 per cent of secondary parental leave was taken by men.
Census data shows that between 1991 and 2016, the rate of men who acted as the stay-at-home parent remained relatively steady: in 1991 4 per cent of families with children had a stay-at-home father, rising to 5 per cent in 2016.
The proportion of families with stay-at-home mothers did fall between 1991 and 2016 from 33 per cent to 27 per cent, but it still meant more than five times as many families had stay-at-home mothers as opposed to those with stay-at-home fathers.
Mothers are also more likely to work part-time: the Australian Institute of Family Studies' analysis of ABS data shows more than 40 per cent of mothers work part-time, compared to four to five per cent of fathers.
Women still make up the overwhelming majority of parents in single-parent households, at 82 per cent as of the 2016 Census.
Tricia Currie, chief executive officer of Women's Health Loddon Mallee, said society had come a long way, but not very quickly.
While there were more flexible workplace offers for both women and men, Ms Currie said, parental leave was still seen as detrimental to a career.
She said societal attitudes still played a part in men's and women's careers, with unconscious bias around gender roles continuing to be a force.
These bore out in day-to-day life, Ms Currie said, which contributed to women bearing the majority of domestic activity.
"We know it's changing, but it's not changing rapidly," she said.
She said economic factors also influenced how men and woman approached flexibility.
To address the imbalance, Ms Currie said workplaces needed to be more flexible in the arrangements they offered to both men and women.
This meant not only offering parental leave, she said, but around parenting tasks such as school drop-offs and tuck shop duty.
Views on parenting and gender roles were also vital in supporting both mothers and fathers.
"We have to make sure their choices and decisions will be respected and valued," Ms Currie said.
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