In this session, we met with the Minister for Women and Prevention of Family Violence · Gabrielle Williams MP, Sally Friedlander – Deputy Secretary People Performance and Culture at DPE, Nicola Young – Acting Deputy Secretary, Fairer Victoria at DFFH and Sonia Dametto – Executive Director, People Culture & Talent at DPC.
These incredible women shared what it takes to make impactful change in government and the workplace, introduce policies that benefit gender equality, safety and inclusion in 2022 and pave the way for future female leaders.
Our 5 key takeaways:
- Build back better: progress can be fragile, and we need to make sure that the work that we embark upon is structural and is here for the long haul, so it can serve future generations.
- We need to challenge the idea of gender neutrality: Often gender-neutral systems can favour men, as they were built by men for men. Real gender equality benefits everyone.
- The Victorian state government has 48% women and a majority-female cabinet. This has enabled the creation of more programs to empower and support women via structural reform.
- More focus on the intersection of women and diverse communities. There is space for more voices of women from multicultural communities, LGBTQ+, and First Nations peoples but first, we need the structural and cultural changes to make sure these voices will be heard.
- We have a duty to expand upon the requirements of the Gender Equality Act and prevent sexual harassment in the workplace. It’s not about fixing the women, it’s about fixing the structures, culture and institutional basis that allows harassment to occur.
Watch the recap of the session below.
Want to learn more? Join us in for our International Women’s Day series of events and read more here.
