BPW is offering a fantastic opportunity to one of our members. BPW Australia has partnered with the National Gender Equality Assembly over the past few years and we are doing so again in 2015. The Assembly will be held at Rydges World Square, Sydney, on Friday, 30 January 2015. Read the program attached at the end of this article, outlining an impressive line up of speakers offering some thought provoking views.

The Assembly has provided one free registration for a BPW member which will go to the winner of a small competition. All you have to do is to write a short statement, in 100 words or less, explaining why you would like to attend the Assembly, and how you would share your insights and new knowledge with other BPW members. Send your entry along with your membership number to President Janis Shaw at president@bpw.com.au by Tuesday, 9 December 2014, and the winner will be announced the following Friday. Please note that travel will be at the winner’s own expense.

The Assembly will also give a $300 discount to BPW Australia members who register by 17 December 2014.

The Gender Equality Program                                                   

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 22nd, 2014 at 10:06 am and is filed under Front Page, Latest News. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.            

BPW Australia congratulates the organisations that have received citations as Employer of Choice for Gender Equality in the 2014 inaugural awards. The citations extend the scope of the Employer of Choice citations awarded in 2014 by the Workplace Gender Equality Agency compared to citations awarded in previous years, and require successful organisations to have demonstrated significant initiative and commitment to achieving gender equity in the workplace. For the first time, the citation process has assessed remuneration data to compare women and men across all levels of organisations as well as the strategies reported by organisations in order to improve and sustain gender equity achievement.

WGEA Director Helen Conway said: “We know sustained and multi-faceted interventions are required to address the structural and cultural barriers that prevent women and men from equally participating at all levels of an organisation. This year’s citation holders have each demonstrated their commitment to maximising the full potential of their entire talent pool.”

This entry was posted on Friday, November 21st, 2014 at 3:07 pm and is filed under Front Page, Latest News. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

The 2014 Edna Ryan Award recipients were recently announced.
BPW Australia Past President, Marilyn Forsythe was awarded in the category of
“Workforce for improving conditions for women workers”

Congratulations Marilyn from BPW Australia.  Your advocacy and hard work is deserving of such recognition.
Read more…

The judging panel consisting of Past President Marilyn Forsythe, Director of Young BPW Erin Chew and Young BPW Awardee Mayase Jere, has decided the winning entries in the EPD Club Competition. There were more entries this year and three categories; winning clubs receive $200.  Check out all of the winning entries here.

Congratulations to:
Category 1.  Best Equal Pay Day slogan/message: BPW Joondalup
Category 2.  Best article on an Equal Pay Day club event: BPW Adelaide
Category 3.  Best media coverage: Joint winners: BPW Coffs Harbour and BPW Joondalup

A delegation of 21 BPW Australia members attended the 28^th BPW International Congress in Jeju, South Korea, in May. A new International Executive was elected, including new International President Dr Yasmin Darwich of Mexico.  BPW Australia was instrumental in the successful adoption of a number of resolutions that will guide the global agenda for the organisation over the next three years. For photographs and more detail, read National President Dr June Kane’s report here…

Read Report from BPW International Congress 2014

This entry was posted on Monday, June 16th, 2014 at 11:14 am and is filed under Front Page, Latest News. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed. 

The recently released Australian Human Rights Commission report, Supporting Working Parents: Pregnancy and Return to Work National Review, revealed some disturbing news for women having children, and who wish to remain in, or return to the workforce after having a child.

The review found that one in two women in Australia reported experiencing discrimination in the workplace during their pregnancy, parental leave or on return to work.

The levels of discrimination experienced by women requesting, or taking Paid Parental Leave (PPL), and their return to work following leave, are quite disturbing. And it is not only women, but their partners as well, who appear to have suffered disadvantage in those circumstances.

Commonly reported types of discrimination experienced included reductions in salary, missing out on training, personal development and promotional opportunities.

The survey was conducted from a pool of 2,000 Centrelink-registered mothers, and recorded their perceived levels of discrimination following the introduction of PPL in January 2011. The sample size is significantly large enough to give this dataset statistical weight. The sample size of fathers and partners was 1200, again from those registered at Centrelink as receiving two weeks’ pay.

As a result of this discrimination, 84% of those mothers who perceived discrimination reported some significant negative impact related to mental health, physical health, career and job opportunities, financial stability or to their families. This represents approximately 30% of all mothers surveyed.

The mental health of mothers of young children is a deeply concerning matter, and will certainly have ramifications that may affect other young women considering motherhood. That employers are not making suitable adjustments in the workplace is of course a matter of concern for BPW Australia.

Interestingly, more than a quarter (27%) of the father and partner respondents reported experiencing discrimination during parental leave.

The government may need to meet this challenge with greater education of employers in respect of PPL. Unconscious, or conscious bias is threatening the well-being of not only women having children, but the children themselves. The increase in women’s workforce participation is critical to increasing the GDP of Australia, and any obstacles to this must be taken seriously as an issue of national importance.

Andrea Cross
Director of Policy
BPW Australia

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 15th, 2014 at 2:28 pm and is filed under Front Page, Latest News. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.               

Supporting the view of BPW Australia, the Consult Australia Champions of Change have written to the Prime Minister to express their support for a robust workplace gender equality reporting framework. The group, comprised of 13 CEOs from the built environment consulting sector, are taking collective action to address equality in their workplaces and stimulate wider industry support for gender reporting. “All reporting regimes include an element of administrative burden but, as business leaders, we understand the primacy of data and the merits in making the effort to collect it,” said Greg Steele, Managing Director Australasia, Hyder Consulting and chair of the group.

Read Media Release

This entry was posted on Monday, April 28th, 2014 at 10:39 am and is filed under Front Page, Latest News. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.