I observed a real groundswell of support for gender equality around International Women’s Day this year. Breakfasts, lunches, dinners, marches, afternoon teas, speeches and community awareness raising activities were held across the country to celebrate our achievements as women and to bring attention to our ongoing pursuit towards equality. I felt a great sense of renewed optimism and camaraderie amongst women at all the events I attended.

To mark International Women’s Day 2008, GetUp!, an independent, grass-roots community advocacy organisation has launched a campaign to raise awareness of pay inequity.

Did you know that women working full time earn 84 cents in the male dollar? When we take into account casual and part time earnings, the pay gap is even bigger with women earning 66 per cent of what men earn.

As part of the ‘Equal Pay for Women’ campaign, GetUp! is collecting signatures for a petition to the Australian government.

The petition calls on the Australian Government to take action to achieve equal pay for women. I encourage you to sign it and spread the work to your family and friends. Click here to see the campaign.

Liz

Gender equality - let’s not let it become a lost Australian dream

Today I will give my first speech to mark International Women’s Day. On this occasion, women gather together across the country and around the globe to bring attention to our ongoing quest for equality and justice. We celebrate our achievements, look honestly at our challenges and plot our course for the future.

Eighty years ago when the first International Women’s Day rally was held in Sydney, women called for equal pay for equal work. Not only do we still not have this but the gap has widened over the last few years.

We still see few women in decision making roles. In the case of boardrooms, women’s participation has only increased from 8.4 percent in 2003 to 8.7 percent in 2006. We are moving at a glacial pace.

True equality does not seem like a radical demand, but even today there are many women who struggle to balance work and family as I have found on my Listening Tour. As you have read on this blog, sexual harassment is still alive and well across all workplaces.

Efforts to create equality between women and men in Australia have been in retreat. Despite the fact that few laws actively discriminate against women, real equality does not exist for many women in their daily lives. We are no where near the so called ‘tipping point’ on gender equality.

I was recently privileged enough to attend the United Nation’s Commission on the Status of Women in New York. This is an annual gathering where governments and women’s organisations meet together - over 5000 participants - to share experiences, challenge each other, and commit to future action to secure gender equality as a human right for all women, everywhere.

There was a general view that Australia in recent times had moved away from its ground-breaking role it had previously played advocating for the rights of women, for example, through supporting the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW).

From my informal discussions with women in the corridors of the United Nations building, it is clear to me that the international community is waiting and watching. Will Australia resume its leadership role in the journey towards gender equality?

Globalisation and technology offer new ways of communicating with one another and influencing change. I urge women to capitalise on these advances and use them to push for a better future where women’s concerns are at centre stage, locally and globally. What’s to stop us harnessing the technology that is already a part of our lives and using it to inspire and activate women across generations and cultures, across cities and states, across schools, communities and workplaces?

A new federal government gives women an enormous opportunity to influence Australia’s future direction. Achieving gender equality is at the heart of that future.

But to do so we must speak up and stand together. We are a prosperous nation full of innovation and talent. Women make up more than 50 per cent of that potential. The sky is the limit.

Liz Broderick

Some of you will have seen the news coverage relating to the gender composition the Australia 2020 summit steering committee. I am concerned, like a large proportion of Australians, that the 11-person steering committee announced yesterday has only one female member.

Neglecting women at this pivotal part of the summit planning could very easily lead to women’s experiences not being represented at this important opportunity to shape Australia’s future. It may seem an obvious point to make, but women make up half the population of this country and if we assume merit is distributed equally among the sexes, women like men make up some of our best and brightest.

As selection of the discussion groups will be drawn from the nomination process, I urge women of all ages and backgrounds to put their names forward. Women interested in nominating for the Australia 2020 summit should nominate by close of business this Friday, 29 February, by going to www.australia2020.gov.au

Opening the 52^nd session of the Commission on the Status of Women, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon launched a seven year campaign to end violence against women.

As the Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner I give my support to this campaign and I urge all Australians to sign the Say No to Violence petition at http://www.saynotoviolence.org/. The United Nations Foundation has committed to donate US $1  for each of the first 100,000 signatures to the campaign.

Violence against women is a serious and pervasive human rights violation in Australia. Violence has a tremendous personal cost for affected women, as well as social and economic costs for our community as a whole.

• As many as 1 in 3 Australian women are affected by domestic and family violence[1]
• Domestic violence is the leading contributor to preventable death, disability and illness in Victorian women aged 15 to 44[2]
• The estimated total annual cost of domestic violence in 2002-03 is $8.1 billion[3]
• Nearly 1 in 5 Australian women have experienced sexual violence since the age of 15[4]
• 80% of women who have experienced sexual assault know the perpetrator[5]

In his address Secretary-General stated, ‘Violence against women is an issue that cannot wait. A brief look at the statistics makes it clear. At least one out of every three women is likely to be beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused in her lifetime. No country, no culture, no woman young or old is immune to this scourge. Far too often, the crimes go unpunished, the perpetrators walk free.’

There are no excuses for violence against women. Everyone has a role to play in challenging this violence: individuals, communities, governments and business. I look forward to working with the new federal government to ensure that women in Australia can exercise their right to live a life free from violence.

Elizabeth Broderick

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[1] Mouzos, J. and Makkai, T. (2004) Women’s Experiences of Male Violence: Findings from the AustralianComponent of the International Violence Against Women Survey (IVAWS) Research and Public Policy SeriesNo. 56, Australian Institute of Criminology, Canberra.[2] VicHealth (2004) The Health Costs of Violence: Measuring the burden of disease caused b intimate partner violence, Vichealth, Melbourne.

[3] Access Economics (2004) The cost of domestic violence to the Australian economy, Australian Government, Canberra.

[4] Australian Bureau of Statistics (2005) Personal Safety Survey, (Cat. No. 4906.0).

[5] Australian Bureau of Statistics (2005) Personal Safety Survey, (Cat. No. 4906.0).

Some of you may know that the Federal Government has recently announced a Productivity Commission inquiry into the introduction of a paid maternity, paternity and parental leave scheme. You can read the terms of reference of the inquiry here.

I am pleased that the terms of reference include all forms of paid leave to accommodate the diverse work preferences of parents and encourage shared care. Given that it is women who give birth I think it is particularly important for the inquiry to examine how any scheme will impact on the health of mothers after birth and workforce attachment for women.

We have previously recommended as a minimum, a government-funded 14 week paid maternity leave scheme paid with two weeks paid paternity leave, at the level of the federal minimum wage. This proposed model ensures that small to medium businesses do not bear the financial and regulatory burden of an employer funded scheme. You can read my predecessor Pru Goward’s 2002 report, A Time to Value - Proposal for a National Paid Maternity Leave Scheme, for more information on HREOC’s recommendations.

It is time for Australia to play catch up and get on with the task of introducing a system of paid leave for mums and dads to deliver both long term economic growth and social well being. I encourage you to stay informed on the progress of the inquiry through the Productivity Commission website. Information on how to make a submission can also be found on this site.

Liz