Australian Honours and Awards Secretariat director Sharon Prendergast has confirmed there has been a dramatic year-on-year increase of 40 per cent in the proportion of women nominated for Australia Day honours. This has not resulted in more women named in today's award list – but that change is not far off.

The increase in nominations should herald a sharp shift in the composition of those who get the gongs if the current success rate of nominations for women holds – women are more likely to succeed than men, based on current results.

It could be at least a year before we see that trend bear fruit in the awards list, although Prendergast says – carefully because she's a public servant – the change could be seen as early as the Queen's Birthday list. In any case, she says the trend is upwards and onwards.

This increase in nominations of women is the result of a crusade and perhaps even a little bit of shame on the part of the Council for the Order of Australia. Last year Governor-General Peter Cosgrove campaigned for the nomination of women, all guns blazing, when he said in a video: "Australia has not always fully recognised women who smash glass ceilings, give their all for worthy causes and contribute so much to our community."

Understatement and hardly restricted to recognition at an honours level.

At the grassroots, there was also insurrection. Honour A Woman campaigners Ruth McGowan, Carol Kiernan and Elizabeth Hartnell-Young ran workshops and answered countless questions; and the Minister for Women in Victoria, Natalie Hutchins, has now appointed a dedicated awards officer who will work with groups like Honour A Woman to organise an additional 200 nominations of Victorian women each year for gender balance. The rest of the states and territories should step up unless we want to see a total domination by Victoria.

But the clearest sign change is coming is this: at the level of our top awards, the companion of the Order of Australia, there are 16 recipients – and six are women. It's a record number and some of these women are brand new to the honours list, leaping straight to the top with no regular Order of Australia on the way. This achievement is even greater when you consider that the overall awards list is 10 per cent smaller this year – and women were disproportionately affected in the reduction. No wonder Honour A Woman is now demanding targets including a forcible reduction of male nominees.

What of those on the Companion list?

Betty Cuthbert died last year so she will never know she was awarded the top honour, exactly what Ruth McGowan, one of the campaigners, feared. She said most women would only end up on the honours list with obituaries rather than testimonials to their living work. Of the 11 Australians honoured posthumously, six are women. It's the closest the honours list comes to gender equality.

Yet Janet McCalman, a historian, and Jennifer Martin, a scientist, new companions, are both alive, kicking goals in their careers; and thrilled by their honours. Both acknowledge the teams behind them and Martin even calls her team ERICA, filled with excellence, respect, collegiality, authenticity.

Yet there's one group we can't quantify – Indigenous Australians. The secretariat responds by saying it only collects information it needs to perform its role of supporting the Council for the Order of Australia. Nine of this year's awardees served the Indigenous community but that is no indication they are Indigenous themselves.

Perhaps it could collect information post-awards so we can best know if our honours really reflect who we are. It's baffling it took Australia decades to elevate Evonne Goolagong-Cawley to the top level – and Adam Goodes does not even have an Order of Australia, which should shame us all, a shame that should be shared by those on the Council for the Order of Australia.

"Someone's got to get moving on that one," says McCalman.

Last year I wished for an entire recast of the Council for the Order of Australia, which is still dominated by men, but that wish was denied. Now the current chair, Angus Houston, is retiring and there is also another vacancy on the council. Of course, Houston's replacement appointment is set in stone (and annoyingly secret) but how good would it be if it was an Indigenous woman and that the other vacancy was then also filled by a woman? Perhaps new member of the Order of Australia Tracey Spicer, whose work against sexual harassment is not specifically mentioned in her award.

My colleague at the University of Technology Sydney, Deb Verhoeven, has an excellent name for the issue of gender inequality: , a Daversity problem, a Johnder equality problem. Together, the names David and John account for 9 per cent of all the awards. The Jennifers and Margarets don't even come close. Don't get me started on surnames. Smiths and Jones aplenty but not a single Nguyen nor a Lee. This is not the Australia I know. And it should be.

Jenna Price is a Fairfax columnist and an academic at the University of Technology Sydney.

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