I believe women can achieve whatever they desire and reach the top in any field. What is required, for us as a community and society, is to identify and remove the systemic barriers that stymie the...
200,000 more women into decent work by 2025: How can Australia achieve this G20 goal?
On International Women’s Day this year many Australian women were inspired by Anne Summers releasing a manifesto for action.It is no longer enough for us to call ourselves feminist. It is no longer...
When Doctors Are Not Called “Dr.”: How Forms of Address Reveal Gender Bias
You graduate from medical school and get your MD degree. At first, when someone calls you “Doctor”, you look around and wonder who they’re talking to, but after years of hard work and sleepless...
Doctor, doctor – what’s the deal with women in medicine?
Medicine has had significant transformation over recent decades. Gone are the days where women like Margaret Ann Bulkley had to pretend to be a man to practice medicine; now over 50% of medical...
Is job sharing for MP’s the answer to 50/50 representation?
The decision by Kate Ellis, the 39 year old federal Labor MP for Adelaide, to announce her retirement at the next election to be with her young son came as a shock. Her explanation was...
‘LEAVE NO ONE BEHIND’: The case for global maternal health action Part 2
I help run the maternal health charity, Send Hope Not Flowers. We are a small voluntary board of like-minded Canberrans who have come together to do what we can to help more mothers survive...
‘LEAVE NO ONE BEHIND’: The case for global maternal health action Part 1
Every two minutes, somewhere in the world, a woman dies from complications due to pregnancy and childbirth. That’s more than 300,000 women each year. 99 per of these deaths are preventable, and 98...
‘Empowerment’ feminism is not working – we need a far more radical approach to gender equality
International Women’s Day has come and gone, leaving the annual short burst attention to “women’s issues” in its wake. So now is a good time to look at what emerged from it, and whether gender...
Gillard, Credlin and Sexism in Contemporary Australia
It is often said that feminism has achieved its goals and is redundant in the twenty first century. Many young men and women alike believe that there is equality between the sexes and that women are...