 Anderson was by no means alone in her late emergence onto the literary stage: Geordie Williamson notes that several of Anderson's Australian female contemporaries including Elizabeth Jolley, Olga Masters, and Amy Witting did not begin publishing until they had reached retirement age. He suggests that each of these women was constrained largely by material circumstances, including "the demands of family and work, lack of financial independence, an indifferent publishing environment." When discussing her career, Anderson was quite clear about where her duties lay: "When I was married, and writing at home (writing was my second job; my first was the house) ... I never craved to be out in the workplace." He suggests that, as well as adverse material circumstances, Anderson's career was delayed, and her success mitigated by modesty and a certain "diffidence regarding her gifts." In her own essay entitled "Starting Too Late," Anderson complains that "they are unwilling servants, those skills we learn too late." She would perhaps have described success as such a skill. When asked about how winning awards had affected her life, she replied that:
