Women NSW (the government department) is inviting women in NSW to Have Their Say as part of the development of the NSW Women's Strategy.  

The NSW Government is developing the NSW Women’s Strategy, a whole-of-government, whole-of-community policy framework to improve gender equality and gender equity in NSW.

The strategy is planned to be released later this year.

The aim of the strategy is to improve equality and equity for women and girls in every aspect of their lives.

The objectives of the strategy are:

• To understand the diverse experiences of gender inequality and gender inequity of women and girls across their lifespan.
• To increase engagement with the whole community on improving gender equality and gender equity.
• To identify areas for focused action and investment.
• To support men and boys to engage with issues of gender inequality and gender inequity.
• To develop an evidence-based framework for achieving change.

The overarching areas of focus that will be addressed in the strategy include:

• Health, wellbeing and safety
• Economic empowerment
• Culture and identity
• Leadership and work

What's the deal with economic leadership and women in Australia? Nationally, Australia has never had a female treasurer, nor a woman as secretary of Treasury, nor for that matter, a female governor of the Reserve Bank. Remember, these three posts represent the supreme triumvirate of economic positions nationally. All have been held by men. Exclusively.  National Affairs Editor for Fairfax, Mark Kenny argues that this cannot be brushed off as the blind operation of the merit principle. 

University of South Australia emeritus professor Barbara Pocock researched working hours for decades. She says we need to rethink the working week and rethink the number of hours we spend on paid work. "I think it is really interesting that there isn't a proper discussion about a four-day working week. Technology was meant to liberate us from the five-day week but, instead, what's happened is that the profit share has increased, reduced the wages share and we've loaded up on intensity and working hours." http://www.theage.com.au/comment/long-weekends-why-every-working-week-should-be-four-days-long-20170612-gwpcic.html  

Barbara will be speaking at the 2017 BPW Adelaide EPD event http://www.unisa.edu.au/Business-community/Hawke-Centre/Events-calendar/Gender-Pay-Equity-How-do-we-make-it-happen/ ]

A Senate Committee report on Gender segregation in the workplace and its impact on women's economic equality was released in June 2017. The Senate’s recommendations align with BPW Australia’s policy position including amending the Fair Work Act 2009 to improve its capacity to address equal remuneration by introducing gender pay equity as an overall object of the Act.

Link to the Inquiry; Link to the Report and recommendations.

The Flexible Work. What’s Working and What’s Not? survey identified the barriers, issues, myths and opportunities presented by flexible work from the perspective of both employees and employers. The voluntary survey was conducted in April 2017 and reported on Australia’s first ever national Flexible Working Day: 21 June 2017. The findings from the survey have been distilled into this report, to drive a social change initiative about the win-win benefits of modern approaches to flexible working for both employers and employees. 

BPW Australia congratulates long term Darwin member and former publicity officer Linda Fazldeenon  or being awarded  in the 2017 Queen's Birthday Honours.  

Linda has been appointed to the Order of Australia for significant service to women as an advocate for gender balance in business leadership, to public administration and to the community.

Linda is a great example of the principles and vales of BPW and we are honoured to have her as a valued member.

In 2014, when we ended a thirty year tradition of releasing a women’s impact statement with the Federal Budget,   Australia committed to reducing our workforce participation gender gap by 25% by 2025 at the G20 in Brisbane.  In 2017, we are seeing an Office for Women that doesn’t seem to have much capability in managing it, and a Minister for Women who doesn’t appear particularly interested in it.  So who  is responsible for  reducing the workforce participation gender gap? https://womensagenda.com.au/latest/eds-blog/confusion-apathy-surrounds-2025-commitment-gender-equality/ 

Sexual equality makes economic sense; governments should measure it and budgets promote it. Violence against women; failing to educate girls properly; unequal pay and access to jobs: all take an economic toll. At its simplest, gender budgeting sets out to quantify how policies affect women and men differently, which converts exhortation about treating women fairly into the coin of government: costs and benefits, and investments and returns. http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21717375-sexual-equality-makes-economic-sense-governments-should-measure-it-and-budgets-promote-it-why

The gender pay gap remains a feature of the Australian labour market for too long, and must be addressed. Persistent gender pay gaps weaken the financial position and future economic security of women, and reveal differences in how society values the respective contributions of women and men in the workforce. The 2017 WGEA report seeks to deepen the understanding of the gender pay gap in Australia; it compares the gender pay gaps across full-time, part-time and casual workers, and across industries and occupations. https://www.wgea.gov.au/sites/default/files/BCEC%20WGEA%20Gender%20Pay%20Equity%20Insights%202017%20Report.pdf