Rosemary Calder was educated in Melbourne and worked as a Journalist on The Age and other newspapers where she reported on the Vietnam War. her visits to Vietnam aroused her interest in adopting a child from her. Rosemary became the Secretary of the Australian Adoptive Parents Families Association. Her interest in Adoption led to her contribution on the organising Committee for the First Australian Conference on Adoption in Sydney in 1976.
Rosemary was an Adjunct Professor in the School of Political and Social Inquiry in the Faculty of Arts at Monash University. She has also worked as First Assistant Secretary (Head) of the Office of the Status of Women in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet (2000-2003) and prior to that for the Victorian government in health care services for older people during the 1980's.
(Source: Australian Women's Book Review, vol.16 no.2, 2004)