World leaders met in September in New York for UNGA80 to commemorate 30 years since the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.  The Beijing +30 Action Agenda provides a clear path forwards to realise the Sustainable Development Goals.

The meeting considered the Gender Snapshot report on progress with the SDGs. Drawing from more than 100 data sources, the report tracks progress for women and girls across 17 SDGs. However, as Women's Agenda reports, the 2025 edition shows that with only 5 years left to achieve the SDG’s goal of reaching gender equality by 2030, the current trajectory will miss every indicator.

The United Nations also declared the SDG Moment 2025 which marks a critical juncture. It is the mid-point of the Decade of Action, the 80^th anniversary of the United Nations, and 30 years since the adoption of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action. It builds on transformative milestones reinforcing the spirit of multilateralism and shared responsibility to deliver on the 2030 Agenda.

The United Nations asserts that, ultimately, the promise of the 2030 Agenda will only be realised if we act—together and now. Whether governments, policymakers, business leaders, civil society, women organizations or youth—we all have a role to play in advancing the SDGs at the national, regional, and global levels.

The SDG Moment is a call to keep the promise: to build a more just, peaceful, inclusive, and prosperous world for all.

The OECD’s latest policy brief summarises key findings on the persistent gender gaps in paid and unpaid work, from their report Gender equality in a changing world: taking stock and moving forward, identifying relevant social, economic and institutional factors preventing gender equality. This report presents a thorough stocktaking of gender equality outcomes and policies across EU and OECD countries using extensive existing datasets and new data collection and policy mapping.

The data reveals that, compared to men, women have lower employment rates, are more likely to work part-time, spend fewer hours to paid work, and spend more hours in unpaid work. They found that differences in women’s and men’s outcomes reflect gender norms and stereotypes about paid and unpaid work, which interact with social, policy and economic environments to disadvantage women in the labour market.

To close these gender gaps, the OECD urges governments to commit to (or advance upon) commitments to work-life balance policies and equal pay and pay transparency policies, among other gender-equality measures.

Sex Discrimination Commissioner Dr Anna Cody addressed the National Press Club this month, and it’s definitely worth watching online.

Dr Cody says we are at a critical moment for gender equality, calling on governments and workplaces to reimagine gender norms, concepts of merit, economic equality and how we approach gendered violence. She called for a ban on non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) in workplace sexual harassment cases, except where they are requested by a victim-survivors who has access to legal advice.

Dr Cody advocated for a new approach to caregiving, recognising that it is a shared responsibility, and being both a worker and a carer at the same time is the reality for most of us.”

This a question Plan International has explored. Plan has a strong focus on empowering and supporting girls globally, recognising that girls bear the greatest burden in disasters and conflicts.  Convincing governments worldwide that gender equality is part of the solution is a challenge, so Plan Australia has produced a guide for communicating about gender equality called Moving the Middle.  The guide is informed by evidence, and can help BPW advocate with more purpose, efficacy and focus.    Page 10 outlines the challenge – Australians’ beliefs about gender equality, and the subsequent pages explore how our message can be better communicated.

Understanding who you’re seeking to influence is the key to effective advocacy. Plan’s guide is based upon their Gender Compass which segments the broader Australian public into 6 groups according to their beliefs, policy preferences and behaviours in relation to gender equality.  In BPW, we’re Trailblazers – we don’t need convincing of the value of gender equity.   The other 5 groups are Hopefuls, Conflicted, Moderate, Indifferent and Rejector.  Each group needs a different approach to convince them to listen, understand, accept and take action on our gender equity messages.

We’ve been energising the base – like-minded leaders and organisations – but we need to Move the Middle!  Page 21 onwards sets the Messaging Principles for more effective communications that influence the ‘moveable middle’.  A good discussion tool for a BPW club meeting.

More than 8 in 10 Australians support DEI – diversity, equity and inclusion policies and practices – and say we need to stop pitting men and women against each other and focus on how men and women can work together to achieve equality.

Professor Athene Donald of the Bennett Institute for Public Policy, Cambridge University has prepared a report on Women, innovation and productivity that recommends regulatory oversight to ensure AI development avoids reinforcing gender bias.

As more women have joined the workforce, overall productivity has increased due to a rise in total working hours. However, the full potential of women’s contributions remains underutilised. Structural inequalities, biased workplace cultures, and underinvestment in women’s health and entrepreneurship hinder their innovation and impact. 

This brief discusses how unlocking the full economic potential of women requires tackling systemic barriers – from biased workplace cultures and underinvestment to gender gaps in education, leadership and funding – through inclusive policies, early education reform and diversity-focused business incentives.

The brief argues that by tackling these systemic issues, the United Kingdom could unlock significant productivity and growth gains. Implementing these low-cost, strategic actions would make better use of women’s economic potential and support a more inclusive, prosperous future.

Historic gender bias has long placed women at heightened risk of social and economic disadvantage, a situation now deepened by the rapid rise of unregulated automated decision-making. 

This policy brief issued by the Working with Women Alliance in July 2025 examines how the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and large language models is amplifying risks to women’s economic equality in Australia. Drawing on recent evidence from employment, financial and housing sectors, this report provides gender-responsive recommendations for regulation and oversight. It offers targeted strategies to mitigate algorithmic discrimination and ensure that the benefits of AI innovation are shared equitably by women and other marginalised groups.

BPW Australia is a member of the national Working with Women Alliance, but individual BPW members and clubs can also join.

The Alliance recommends that the government

• ·         Ensures AI research and development strategy and funding has a gender lens and prioritises the elimination and minimisation of algorithmic bias.
• ·         Ensures that employment, housing and the financial sector are classified as high-risk for the purposes of AI Safety Standards.
• ·         Considers making the AI Safety Standards, including the 10 AI Guardrails, mandatory for all sectors.
• ·         Ensures all Government AI strategies, frameworks, regulations and action plans include a gender impact statement, especially in relation to productivity.
• ·         Develops regulations for AI adoption in the private sector.
• ·         Re-establishes the Department of Industry, Science and Resources’ AI Expert Group and ensure the group has sufficient expertise and capacity to advise on the gender impacts of AI development and deployment. 

Several national government reforms came into effect on 1 July, including the following which were the subject of BPW Australia resolutions passed by our national conference and included in our election advocacy platforms in 2022.

In 2023, pay secrecy clauses in employment contracts were rendered illegal when pay transparency was legislated.  This year, parental leave will include superannuation contributions.  In addition, the national minimum wage has increased and the wages in women-dominated care professions are under review by the Fair Work Commission.

There is still much to do.

Our 2025 national advocacy platform included a gender focus on housing stress and on the impact of HECS debt, access to abortion in rural and regional Australia, and preventing the weaponisation of child support.  We’re working on it.   

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has recently released its International Gender Equality Strategy which reaffirms the centrality of Australia’s commitment to gender equality and advancing the human rights of women and girls. It outlines how we will use all tools of our foreign policy to drive gender equality, including through our bilateral and regional programs and relationships, our multilateral diplomacy, trade, development and humanitarian assistance.

This Strategy reinforces Australia’s longstanding role as a champion and trusted partner for gender equality. The Strategy focuses on five priorities:

1. work to end sexual and gender-based violence and protect and advance women’s sexual and reproductive health and rights

2. pursue gender responsive peace and security efforts

3. deliver gender equitable climate action and humanitarian assistance

4. promote women’s economic equality and inclusive trade

5. support locally led approaches to women’s leadership.

This builds upon DFAT’s Inclusion, Equity and Diversity Strategy which applies to both DFAT staff and their overseas programs and policies.  They state: Australia’s International Gender Equality Strategy aligns our values with practical actions to advance gender equality globally. By working in genuine partnership, supporting local leadership and embedding gender equality across all aspects of our engagement, we will deliver tangible results. We will champion these principles in the Indo-Pacific and beyond, driving change that uplifts entire communities. With our partners, Australia will continue to work towards a safer, more prosperous world in which everyone has equal opportunities, rights and freedoms and can thrive free of violence, conflict and discrimination.

We are hearing little from the Prime Minister or the Opposition Leader about addressing violence against women by their partners in their public statements and speeches and social media.  Is it a priority?

The government’s Women's Budget Statement 2025 leads with over 20 pages of investment in domestic violence and calls this scourge a priority.  Yet it isn’t being spoken about in the context of the election. 

The opposition has 2 lines about domestic violence in their election plan, but you need to scan it until the last page to find it.   

Now in the fourth week of the five-week campaign, the Coalition has flagged it will have something to say on the topic before polling day while the ALP has released its “commitment to women” announcement. Analysis by academics Kate Fitzgibbon and Hayley Boxall is that much of Labor’s announcement is about what the party has already done to address women’s safety, including funding already committed under the National Plan To End Violence Against Women and Children. The announcement concedes “there is much more to do” and highlights extra spending on financial abuse and perpetrator interventions specifically.

Maybe ask your local candidates whether the escalating numbers of dead women are a priority for them.

Ms. Sima Bahous, UN Under-Secretary-General and UN Women Executive Director, delivered the opening speech at the 69^th session of the Commission on the Status of Women, 10 March 2025, UN headquarters in New York. Ms Bahous was reporting on an analysis of the progress reports of 159 countries against the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, 30 years since this a bold vision and game-changing roadmap for equality, development and peace for all women everywhere was agreed.

BPW International was there, standing with our sister organisations and the women of the world, ready to March Forward.

In her speech, Ms. Bahous told us there is progress to celebrate, earned through the efforts, bravery and inspiration of those who have fought the fight for equality. Here is some of what she said.

We, you, the champions of gender equality, are not afraid of the pushback. We have faced it before. We have not backed down. And we will not back down.  2025 must be a turning point to push forward for rights, equality, and empowerment, for all women and girls.

We need, and women and girls expect and deserve, acceleration, redoubled effort, and an overdue recognition that what has been done does not suffice, what is being done is not enough, and what must be done can no longer be deferred.

Today, more girls are in school. More women are in parliaments, in boardrooms, in the judiciary. Maternal mortality has fallen. Legal barriers have been dismantled. Policies to protect and advance women’s rights are advancing. Violence against women and girls is widely recognized as a global scourge. There is progress. You, Member States, have pushed progress.

Yet, as we meet here today, in too many places women’s rights are being rolled back. The Beijing Declaration’s noble goals, its call to the undeniable interest of all humanity, elude us still.

We see opportunity spurned, solutions foregone. We face pushback and a peak in resistance to gender equality. Misogyny is on the rise, and so, violence and discrimination. And the crises of our time—from conflict to climate change—accelerate and amplify these inequalities. Women and girls are the ones bearing the heaviest burden.

We see widening inequalities, an unravelling of hard-won progress. Women’s and girls’ voices silenced when they need to be heard loudest. Precisely when we should be investing more in an equal future, in the shining potential of women and girls, we instead invest less, and spend more on guns and bombs.

the adoption of the CSW Political Declaration will stand as a testament to what we can achieve—even in challenging times—when we come together for women and girls; when we affirm the ongoing commitment of these United Nations to equality and the role of multilateralism in its pursuit.

The Political Declaration reaffirms the commitments of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action, originally adopted in 1995 at the Fourth World Conference on Women, stressing the need to uphold all human rights and fundamental freedoms for every woman and girl, without exception.

We owe a debt of gratitude to civil society and to women-led movements, whose courage and unwavering advocacy have driven transformative change. Civil society and women-led movements—you are the conscience of our global commitments, the voices urging us to do better, to be better. 

In her closing remarks. Ms. Sima Bahous stated: This Commission on the Status of Women has shown that, whatever the headwinds, the United Nations is still the place where consensus can be found on gender equality. As this 69th Commission on the Status of Women closes, we share a deep recognition of the challenges and opportunities of gender equality. They have been articulated frequently, eloquently, and effectively these last two weeks—in an exceptional year.