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Due to her example of motherhood and tireless pro-life promotion of family, mothers and children, Professor Joanna Howe is the recipient of the 2024 Mother of the Year Award.

The Australian Mother of the Year Award has honoured motherhood and one outstanding mother every year since 1994.

The organisation Barnardos originally sponsored this award. However, it announced that 2020 would be the honour’s last. In a move the Sydney Morning Herald called an “almighty snub”, the charity reasoned that the award no longer “truly represent[ed] the variety of families we celebrate in our contemporary world.”

FamilyVoice Australia subsequently picked up sponsorship of the award. Every year since 2021, it has announced the Australian Mother of the Year in the week leading up to Mother’s Day.

Importance of Motherhood and the Family

Peter Downie, national CEO of FamilyVoice Australia, and his colleague Andrew McColl, director for Queensland, announced this year’s recipient on Neil Johnson’s 20Twenty program.

McColl praised the award, pointing out that the Bible celebrates motherhood. “Around the West, birth rates are falling. Motherhood is viewed as less and less important.”

But “Christians should think differently,” he said.

“Without mothers, there would be no families,” he added. “There should be a ‘baby boom’ in our churches.”

Highlighting the command for parents to bring up their children (Eph 6:4), McColl continued, “The education of children is not primarily academic. It centres around values. Children need their parents’ example and their time.”

Professor Joanna Howe: Worthy Recipient

The Queensland director then revealed the rationale behind choosing this year’s award winner from among many other worthy nominees.

A mother who sets an example for other women to follow is fundamental to the award.

McColl then revealed, “We also wanted to think about those ladies who are doing something in the public sphere, and who are making a difference for children right across Australia.”

“And I think in this case, [Joanna Howe] has been doing that.”

“By providing national leadership to the pro-life cause, Dr Howe is serving as a mother to the nation.”

Professor Joanna Howe with her family

In a media release, FamilyVoice stated:

“Professor Joanna Howe is a worthy recipient of the 2024 FamilyVoice Mother of the Year award, as she not only ensures a transmission of the faith and the values of Christianity across the generations through her own young family, but especially as Dr Howe provides a truly outstanding voice for the unborn,” Andrew McColl said.

“Dr Howe is valued for raising a voice on behalf of those who cannot speak for themselves, including the unborn in danger of abortion, newborns facing appalling neglect, and for mothers who are preyed upon by the abortion industry.”

“Despite all the concern about domestic violence against women, we must face the fact that our culture is anti-motherhood as it promotes and pays for abortion.”

“FamilyVoice Australia salutes Joanna Howe as one of the nation’s leading defenders of God’s gift of new life.”

Amongst many other endeavours, Professor Howe took a leading role during the federal Senate inquiry into the Babies Born Alive Bill. Here she is in July 2022 giving evidence alongside Love Australia and Canberra Declaration.

Joanna Howe: From Pro-Choice Feminist to Pro-Life Mother

While studying economics and law at Sydney University, Howe was a “card-carrying feminist.”

In her words, she was “pro-choice because you have to be. This is so important for women.”

She’d “believed the feminist lie that women needed abortion to feel empowered. In order to be equal to men, they needed abortion. But I didn’t know what abortion was.”

That changed one fateful day back in 2004. Joanna was travelling in a car with some friends when the topic of abortion came up.

One of the young men in the car challenged Joanna, asking, “Do you know what abortion is?”

“Of course I know what it is!” she sharply replied.

“How is it ever okay to kill something that’s alive?” the young man questioned.

“It’s not alive; it’s not a baby,” she replied.

“What is it, then?”

“It’s only alive when we can see it.”

However, the young man was unmoved. “Isn’t the test of whether something is alive, is if it’s growing?”

“If a plant is growing, it’s alive.”

He continued, “With a baby in utero, you have a single cell that multiples and grows and develops until the baby comes out. But throughout that process, the baby is alive because he/she is growing.”

Joanna recollects, “He planted seeds, but I didn’t show that he’d got to me.”

“He had planted seeds and questions that I couldn’t answer.”

The questions remained swirling in her thoughts. After taking a deep dive into the literature on abortion, the medical procedures involved, and above all, the humanity of every unborn child, she completely reversed her previous stance.

Further, she knew she had to do something to educate and inform others who, similar to herself, went along with the pro-abortion position based on ignorance.

And what became of the annoying man who challenged Joanna that life-defining day?

Howe has apparently never formally confessed debate defeat. But regardless of the absence of a worded acknowledgement, he knows the answer.

Joanna ended up marrying him!

And since their marriage, the happy couple have been blessed with five beautiful young children.

Championing and Valuing Motherhood

Dr Howe balks at the pressure women face to shun motherhood and become economic cogs in the machine, valued only for their output to the national GDP.

She finds finding a woman’s worth in her economic output dehumanising and deeply un-feminine.

Her journey navigating work with motherhood took a turn while she was a Rhodes scholar undertaking doctoral studies at Oxford University.

Anne-Marie Slaughter, an American international lawyer, came and met with a group of women who were grappling with navigating their career with potential motherhood.

Something Anne-Marie said changed Howe’s direction in life – and for the better.

In a piece penned in The Atlantic, Slaughter revealed when she was close to obtaining a ‘dream job’ with Hillary Clinton.

She had a young child at the time. Anne-Marie realised that it was not possible to be there for her son and take on a very high-profile position – at the same time. She chose motherhood ahead of her career.

This experience challenged Howe to consider what’s most important in life. She asks, “Where do women want to be at the end of their lives? Are we going to be looking at the accolades that we achieved?”

“Or are we going to be thinking about the little children that we raised, who then become our best friends as adults? And who are now surrounding us as we take our dying breaths?”

The Bible agrees and speaks of such mothers, “Her children arise and call her blessed” (Proverbs 31:28).

As Howe concludes, “That’s the kind of life we want to lead. And I think women intuitively know that.”

Another Oxford Life-Changing Moment

At an Oxford “Books and Babies” seminar, Howe had another life-changing moment. There were two academics on the panel. One a senior academic, the other, a senior gynaecologist.

The academic urged the young women to delay motherhood until their careers were firmly established. For these high-accomplishing career-hopefuls, this meant avoiding children until at least 35 to 40.

But Howe vividly recalls that the gynaecologist would have none of it.

“At that point, the gynaecologist nearly had a heart attack and said, ‘Don’t do that. You absolutely should be having children when you are young because that is the way you have been biologically made.’”

“I had plans with my husband that we would wait a little longer. But I said to my husband that night, ‘We’ve got to have children. We’ve got to start making babies.’”

It is a lesson Howe now wants a new generation of women to take up. Societal expectations and policies around women in the workplace should reflect biological reality and the unique contribution women bring to their families and societies as women – and not deny it. That is real gender equality.

The attempt to view women and men as genderless entities is a fiction. And it is deeply damaging to both men and women.

Raising Children: A Joy

Howe readily admits that motherhood has been a journey, and she has learned many valuable lessons along the way.

Now a mother of five, amid a busy and demanding schedule as a professor of law at Adelaide University and pro-life leader and educator, she cherishes time with her family.

Her youngest son, Tommy, was born during the Covid pandemic. It was a time that changed life for everyone, including herself.

Joanna was initially apprehensive about the positive pregnancy test. With four children six years and under, she wondered how she would handle another baby in the family.

But fast-forward to today, and those hesitations have vanished.

“Tommy, this little baby completed our family.”

Amidst the chaos of Covid, Howe took leave to be with her newborn. It proved to be life-enhancing.

“Through that year of the pandemic with him, I really feel like I discovered myself as a mother. And it took me five babies to do it.”

Joanna Howe and Tommy

Howe now encourages other mothers and families to prioritise each other through her regular Facebook and Instagram posts.

In a recent comment, she encourages families to explore God’s creation. Taking her children to the beach, she was amazed at the positive experience.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Dr Joanna Howe (@drjoannahowe)

“When I began building sandcastles and not just ordinary ones, really elaborate ones decorated by some finds from a nature walk we’d done earlier, the two little menaces stopped fighting and trying to engage me as their arbiter and audience, but actually started to enjoy each other and then played for hours.

“They forgot about me, swam in the ocean, kicked a ball and made their own sandcastle city. I’ve been trying this a bit lately since then and I’m starting to see a new dynamic form in their relationship, resetting the old ways with a renewed friendship.

“It’s amazing what a difference ditching screens, leaving the house, being outside, in nature and doing something we all love has the capacity to renew our spirits and reset our relationships.”

She adds, “Your and your kid’s happiness are in reach. Get out in nature and do something YOU enjoy. Your joy will be contagious and the kids will soon catch it.”

Congratulations Dr Howe

Neil Johnson from Vision Media referred to Joanna as “a bit of a firecracker. She isn’t going to remain quiet… she’s not afraid to speak up.”

Johnson spoke of her courage amid challenges and opposition. Due to her advocacy for the unborn, Dr Howe has already had complaints against her and her academic post.

No doubt, the challenges will keep on coming.

But with yesterday’s Australian Mother of the Year Award announcement, this is a time to pause and celebrate.

Romans 12:15 commands us to “Rejoice with those who rejoice.”

The Daily Declaration celebrates with you, Joanna, and your beautiful family. Well done, good and faithful servant!

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Photo via FamilyVoice Australia.