This year we have witnessed growing concerns over the status of women in Australia. The historic March4Justice, sparked by Brittany Higgin’s rape allegations, prompted a whirlwind response from the Australian Government to address the treatment of women in politics and more broadly.

The recent launch of the National Summit on Women’s Safety 2021 program in particular has played an important role in initiating discussions amongst our policymakers and diverse members of the community on the urgent need to reduce violence against women and children across Australia.

However, are current actions to promote women’s rights, economic security and safety enough to generate meaningful change?

The Honourable Tanya Plibersek MP, Shadow Minister for Education and Shadow Minister for Women, discussed this topic last week along with Virginia Haussegger AM, Professor Michelle Ryan and Dr Hannah McGlade. The discussion centred on the opportunities to improve the status of women and gender equality in Australia.

“We have so much information about what the problem is, and we have so many positive suggestions about how we can fix the problem” said Hon Plibersek, “it is really just about getting on and doing it. And I think that is much more likely to happen if you have leaders explicitly saying that we need to achieve gender equality”.

Hon Plibersek said that a change in Australia’s attitudes towards women would have to be led at a government level. She said, “it starts with leadership of the government. The Prime Minister and the government need to be fully committed to gender equality”.

Director of the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at the ANU, Professor Michelle Ryan, acknowledged current gender equality movements particularly led by younger generations of women, such as Grace Tame and Brittany Higgins, have proven to generate action. However, she said, “we need to return to legislative and policy change - it is not enough to think that social movements will move the dial in the way that we need them to move”.

Associate Professor at Curtin University and member of the UN Permanent Forum for Indigenous Issues, Dr Hannah McGlade, added “we need to see expertise and leadership in women’s rights and indigenous rights from our leaders”.

In particular, “Aboriginal women need their own plan because the violence is very much directed towards Aboriginal women because of race. And racism in the legal system is a problem”.

“We have evidence of racism in our laws. We need to reform laws, but we also need to change the culture of the laws to ensure that we are a part of these processes and institutions.”

The panel emphasized the importance of acknowledging this intersectionality between sexism and racism in an effort to improve gender equality for all women in Australia. 

Creating organisational and systemic change that is both inclusive and sustainable were some of the overarching themes of the event.

The Wilson Dialogue, hosted by the Sir Roland Wilson Foundation, is one of Australia’s premier forums for discussing policy issues of national and global significance.

A recording of the 2021 Wilson Dialogue is available to view here: https://vimeo.com/625379383/723547554b