REMEMBER the era when you just knew who  people meant if they talked about Dame Pattie, or Tamie or Zara, or Margaret or Janette?

And what a debate there was as to who could actually be considered a First Lady?

A quick look at “First ladies: significant Australian women 1913–2013,” the new exhibit opening at the National Portrait Gallery today, will reveal that the NPG doesn’t think it’s a term reserved for the wives of Governors General and Prime Ministers alone.

On the contrary, the exhibition’s curator, Joanna Gilmour, has tagged leading businesswoman Imelda Roche, co-founder of Nutrimetics International (Australia), who opens the exhibition today, as a “First Lady”.

The exhibition  aims to profile the achievements of Australian women in the 20th century.

As well as stern  boardroom portraits of businessmen and male politicians were a bronze bust of Doctor Christine Rivett, a painting of musicologist Alice M Moyle and photographs of athletes Louise Sauvage and Cathy Freeman.

Since that time, some 2000 works have been added and the acquisitions and commissions ensure that the histories and achievements of women are included.

Drawn largely from the NPG’s collection, “First ladies” tends to focus on “firsts”: Quentin Bruce, Australia’s first female Governor-General; Elizabeth Blackburn, the first Australian-born woman to be awarded a Nobel Prize; aviatrix Nancy Bird Walton, Australia’s first female commercial pilot and artist Nora Heysen, the first woman to win the Archibald Prize.

There are portraits of Australian women across many fields of endeavour, including politics, activism, academia, the arts, literature, science, business and medicine.

Gallery director, Louise Doyle, notes that the launch of this exhibition coincides with Centenary’s theme for February: “Women and Sport.” So yes, they have plenty of sportswomen too.

First ladies: Significant Australian women 1913–2013,” at the National Portrait Gallery, until June 16.