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NFAW Newsletter – Winter 2021
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IN THIS ISSUE
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President’s Message
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In this edition, we take a strong focus on the “Gender Lens” and NFAW’s pathbreaking work over many years to systematically examine mainstream budget initiatives to determine whether they have a gendered outcome – intentional or not.
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NFAW welcomes the re-introduction of the Budget Statement in the 2021-22 Budget but considers it does not represent a real change from the Government in addressing systemic inequalities. For too many years, women have carried a heavier share of unpaid work in Australia which has affected female economic security; left women girls more vulnerable to violence at work and at home; and affected health and wellbeing. Moreover, the COVID pandemic has had a significant gendered impact, both in Australia and across the globe.
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Pandemic-driven inequality is growing at an alarming pace, driven by disruptions to women’s health services, job losses in sectors where women are overrepresented, and a sharp increase in care-giving needs and other unpaid work. Yet, at a global level, research by Eurasia Group highlights that gender-equal policies can actually fuel the global economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic:
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- Providing access to childcare for women around the world who currently lack it could deliver up to $3 trillion of additional GDP each year by enabling them to participate in the labour force.
- Instituting cash transfer programs globally could lift up to 100 million women out of absolute poverty, which is defined as living on less than $2 per day.
This holds true in Australia too and through the work NFAW has done – some featured in this edition – we continue to advocate for policy and programmatic change. I believe we are at a critical inflection point. While we have seen progress over the past quarter century, nowhere on earth are women on equal footing with men, and the pandemic has worsened inequalities. Our longstanding commitment to support all women in their fight for a fairer and more equal world accordingly has to intensify.
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Finally, as I write this, NAIDOC week is drawing to a close. Its 2021 theme, Heal Country! – calls for all of us to continue to seek greater protections for our lands, our waters, our sacred sites and our cultural heritage from exploitation, desecration, and destruction. The inequalities and barriers faced by Indigenous women in particular can conspire to rob women and girls of opportunity. This year, our 2021 NFAW Annual Dinner will feature an Indigenous female leader highlighting how empowerment initiatives are underway and, over time can improve women’s security and help heal and nurture this country of ours.
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Stay safe and well everyone, especially those of you in lockdown.
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Annual Press Club Dinner - November 9
Our Annual Dinner is scheduled to be held at the National Press Club, Canberra on the evening of Tuesday 9 November 2021. (Lockdowns and pandemics permitting.)
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Dr Janine Mohamed, CEO Lowitja Institute (Australia's National Institute for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Research) has graciously agreed to be our keynote speaker. Dr Mohamed is a proud Narrunga Kaurna woman from South Australia. Over the past 20 years, Janine has worked in nursing, management, project management, and workforce and health policy in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health sector. Many of these years have been spent in the Aboriginal Community Controlled Health sector at state, national and international levels, and most recently as the CEO at the Congress of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nurses and Midwives (CATSINaM).
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We'll be sending NFAW members a priority booking link shortly.
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Dr Janine Mohamed, CEO Lowitja Institute
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WFH......... Through a Gender Lens
During the peak of the pandemic, in mid 2020, many women experienced job loss and reduced working hours. Since then, women’s employment has recovered well, but this places new pressures on women as they renegotiate paid and unpaid work responsibilities when taking up new employment or increasing their hours of paid work. Whether or not to work from home, for those jobs where it is an option, is a critical element of these negotiations.
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Women continue to shoulder the burden of most unpaid domestic and caring work, and often tailor their paid work choices to best fit in with their other responsibilities. This can create work/care conflicts that must be resolved – often resulting in women working part-time or leaving the paid workforce, with downstream implications for their economic security.
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Read the full article by NFAW's Sally Moyle and Helen Innes, here.
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Release of 2021 Gender Lens
Our 2021-22 Gender Lens on the Budget looked at a wide range of issues including the Machinery of Government, Respect at Work, Infrastructure, Climate Change, Housing and Aged Care and was covered by a wide range of media and organisations including TTPI (Tax and Transfer Policy Institute), Analysis and Policy Observatory, ABC Life Matters Budget Panel, Wave FM, Women in Adult and Vocational Education, Women on Boards, The TJ Ryan Foundation, WEL (Women's Electoral Lobby), Queensland Council of Social Services, Sydney Morning Herald, Canberra Times and Power to Persuade.
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Social Policy Committee Update
The work of the Social Policy Committee this quarter has been focussed on the Gender Lens on the 2021-22 Budget. We were expecting to see some substantive initiatives this year. Since the 2020-21 Budget last October the Government has been roundly criticised for the lack of attention to women in the budget, followed by the scandals that arose in Parliament House.
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The Government did produce a Women’s Budget Statement that was available on Budget night, but as we pointed out in the Machinery of Government section:
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The Women’s Budget statement is still at heart a glossy: it does not systematically examine the mainstream budget initiatives to determine whether they have a gendered outcome, intentional or not.
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In particular, the Budget did not set out a clear program of reform to address the systemic issues that contribute to economic disparity for women. The funding in the care sector was welcome, notably child care and aged care, but there was still no funding allocated to improve working conditions in those sectors; and the inequitable tax cuts that will apply from 2024 were not scaled back.
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I was invited to appear on the Budget night panel on the ABC Radio PM program, and the following morning on ABC National Life Matters – great opportunities to identify how the budget could have been used to spend on social infrastructure, which would give direct benefits to women that would flow on to the whole community, as shown in the modelling from Victoria University that was commissioned in 2020.
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The Gender Lens is not the only matter that we have been involved with this quarter. We have also made submissions to the Treasury Laws Amendment (Your Future, Your Super) Bill 2021 and the Senate Select Committee on Job Security. We are giving evidence to the Senate Education and Employment Legislation Committee’s Inquiry into the provisions of the Sex Discrimination and Fair Work (Respect at Work) Amendment Bill 2021 on 19 July, following a submission to that enquiry.
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All in all, I am very proud of the team that works on the Social Policy Committee, and the work that they do to support the development of good, evidence based policy. I would particularly like to thank the committee members, the team of writers and policy analysts, and the editorial and publishing team for the immense effort put in each year to produce the Gender Lens in an incredibly short timeline.
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Chair, Social Policy Committee
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Australian Women’s Archives Program (AWAP)
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Fundraising to support the Australian Women’s Register
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Since the cessation of funding for an AWAP Executive Officer by the University of Melbourne in 2020, there is an urgent need to raise funds to ensure the continuance of this vital work.
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Why does it matter? We all know the maxim: you can’t be what you can’t see. As pioneering feminist educator Dr Myra Pollack Sadker wrote: “Each time a girl opens a book and reads a womanless history, she learns she is worth less.” Under-representation of Australian women’s contribution to society has been highlighted again in the recent Australian Honours announcements. After 43 years of men consistently receiving 70% of the honours, the Queen’s Birthday announcements were the best ever result for women, at 44%. But will it be sustained?
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While discussions continue with the University as to future support, NFAW Director Kate Gunn has recently submitted a grant application to the AMP Foundation to support employment of an Executive Officer and a technology refresh. A fundraising business case has been prepared as part of NFAW plans to approach individual donors for support. An event to be held at the National Library in Canberra, on 20 October, will also raise funds for AWAP. With invitations sent to high-profile speakers with long careers in politics, watch this space for details!
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Increasing representation of Chinese Australians on the Australian Women’s Register
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Madeleine Sinnis, who worked for NFAW as a participant in the Australian National Internships Program, has completed her project to identify more Chinese Australia women for addition to the Register and to write a research essay on their under-representation in politics, business and the public sector more broadly. Madeleine is a final year undergraduate student at the Australian National University, majoring in Chinese and business studies.
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Madeline has identified 40 women who should have entries on the Register – there were previously only 14 entries for Australian Chinese women among the 7000 Register entries. Census data reveal 1.2 million people living in Australia have Chinese ancestry, one quarter of them born in Australia.
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Madeleine’s research was shared with the National Library of Australia, which has indicated interest in interviewing some of the women for its Oral History program. During her internship Madeleine was based in the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at ANU, supported by its Chief Operating Officer Natalie Barr. NFAW will offer to host another intern in 2022 in association with the Institute.
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The next step is to raise funds to prepare Register entries for the identified women and a new online exhibition to showcase the achievements of Chinese Australian women.
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ARC supported research project on women’s participation in community sport
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NFAW has agreed to be an ‘industry’ participant, providing a modest cash contribution as well as in-kind expertise, in an application for an Australian Research Council grant led by Dr Jane Hunt, of Bond University for a project on women’s participation in community sport. Feminist sports researchers from Deakin (Dr Kim Toffoletti), Griffith (Dr Adele Pavlidis), and Swinburne universities (Dr Kasey Symons), are participants along with Dr Joanne Evans from Monash, an archivist who was one of the early informatics architects of the Register; and Professor Rachel Fensham from Melbourne University, a leading digital humanities scholar. Using case studies from hockey, netball and triathlon, a successful outcome will generate new content for the Register, recording personal narratives which illuminate the success factors in community sport, elevate women’s voices and tell a bigger story about overcoming gender inequity.
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You can donate to support the work of AWAP on the Australian Women's Register here.
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AWAP Management Committee
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For Members
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Hello to our newest members who have joined NFAW in the last couple of months:
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Welcome to NFAW! We encourage you and all members who have not already done so to complete your details in the Member Directory. This is a great opportunity to let NFAW and other members know more about you, and put your hand up for work, board, committee and volunteering opportunities. Complete your details here.
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Thank you to everyone who donated generously to our EOFY appeal. Your funds will go to extending future work on the Gender Lens on the Budget, supporting AWAP, and helping NFAW to maintain a robust presence and hold governments to account.
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Board Room
The Board met via videoconference on 7 July 2021.
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We hope to hold our AGM and Board meeting in person on 10 November 2021 in Canberra, to coincide with our Annual Dinner at the National Press Club on Monday 9 November 2020.
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Listen In - NFAW Podcasts
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Have you had a chance to tune into some of our podcasts yet? Hear Professor Helen Hodgson on the 2021 Budget through a Gender Lens and its implications for women working in the Aged Care sector, women and their super and much more. Listen here.
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