When you think of the history of women's rights certain things come to mind.
Sure, the image of women burning bras is one. But usually, that image doesn't go alongside a bright green dinosaur. Unless, of course, you happen to be looking at the cover of Samantha Tidy's new book, When Grandma Burnt Her Bra.
A fun look at women's history, it follows how one little girl finds out how her grandmother fought for women's rights in the 1960s. But this turns into something else, when a young imagination runs wild.
All it took was for grandma to call those who didn't believe in equal rights "dinosaurs" and suddenly there's a T-rex in the picture - quite literally, thanks to the illustrations from Aska.
"I wanted to be able to give kids an interest in understanding the history of women's rights using fun and humour," Tidy says.
"The idea of burning bras is not such an Australian story. It was more a stereotype that came out of the American movement for women's rights in the 60s.
"But it's also a way of getting people to have a bit of a giggle. And so when I tell kids about the title of the book, they instantly start laughing."
The dinosaurs, Tidy says, were one of those wonderful gifts writers hunt for - something that just happened to suit this grandmother who was a little bit batty, and possibly starting to lose her marbles. And, of course, because it can be easy for a kid to take something said figuratively and think it is literal.
"Whilst dinosaurs and humans never shared the planet - that's an important thing to know - we have to suspend true science to get to this story," Tidy says.
"But you think about the arrow of history, from cavewomen to now where we have female astronauts and female prime ministers, and so forth, every one of those women, across generations, has had to keep the fire alive from the caves of the cave women who were not happy with their lot in life.
"And every generation of women and men have kept this fire alight."
But while When Grandma Burnt Her Bra is a story of empowerment with a dash of fun, the beginning seeds of the book's theme were gut-wrenching, to say the least.
Having worked in the museum sector as an educator, Tidy often works with turning history into educational moments. As she was writing content for the National Library of Australia's classroom website, she came across one story about the hunger strike for suffragettes.
"Women who went on hunger strike to get the women's vote were force-fed through nasal shields," Tidy says.
"When I read that, it was a new piece of information that I didn't know. And I started having quite an emotional response. And then I realised that at some point, I might tell my daughter about that.
"I wondered if she would believe me, that women had to fight so physically, and so horrendously, for the right for her to be able to have a vote today. And then I thought about wanting my son to understand that this had to happen. And then the idea for the book came from that."
It's a hard part of women's history. Naturally, as humans, it's easy to shy away from the hard stories, particularly when looking to write a children's story.
What When Grandma Burnt Her Bra is, however, is a starting point. A fun story that perhaps sparks an interest in what can be a complicated topic, feminism and women's rights.
"We're told that women can have everything that they want. The truth is, if you want everything, it is really hard to achieve that - case in point, career and family, it's really hard to find that balance," Tidy says.
"To make that available to women, so that they can have all that they want, we need to even the domestic load. And once that becomes more of a natural inclination for every generation, then women will be able to have everything that they want.
"And we are so fortunate to have had people like Dorothy Tangney and Enid Lyons who were in a long line of risk-takers of women who stood for parliament and Senate. And they were the first woman in Federal Parliament to be able to take a seat in the House and the Senate."
- When Grandma Burnt Her Bra, by Samanta Tidy. Illustrated by Aska. Exisle Publishing. $24.99.
