Women's Agenda

“She wasn’t meant to live, let alone walk or talk, ” Alexa Leary’s mother, Belinda said as she choked back tears in the stands after her daughter’s race. “We got a different daughter back. I love her personality. She’s funny, she’s crazy, but most importantly she’s fulfilling her dreams and what she wanted to do prior … She always wanted to go to the Olympics. That was her thing, always.”

Over the past decade corporate Australia has made a genuinely dedicated and sincere effort to increase gender diversity on company boards. However new research shows the growth of female representation at chair level and in the C-suite has fallen behind the growth of female representation in the boardroom. Joanne Gorton shares more on Deloitte's recently released ninth annual Women in the Boardroom: A Global Perspective report. #csuite #boards #boarddiversity #corporateAustralia

The proposal from the Australian Electoral Commission, released on Friday afternoon, would mean that North Sydney’s independent MP Kylea Tink would no longer have a seat in parliament. It would also mean that thousands of North Sydney voters would be distributed to surrounding electorates.  

Former Prime Minister Scott Morrison has been denied membership to Sydney’s exclusive all-male Australian Club. He joins women across Australia in rejection from the club that voted against allowing women to join.

Canadian writer and activist Naomi Klein has won the inaugural Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction for her book Doppelganger: A Trip Into the Mirror World. “The book shines a light on the shadow world of social media – where facts are malleable, disinformation is prevalent and conspiracy theories abound – Klein captures the absurdities and dangers of the modern age, on a personal, social and political level,” writes the Women’s Prize judges. 

Australian teenager Catherine Laga’aia has been cast in the lead role of Disney’s upcoming live-action Moana movie. Production of Disney’s remake will begin this summer, with the film set to hit Australian cinemas July 9, 2026. Laga’aia will join Dwayne Johnson, who’ll reprise the role of Maui. 

The Labor Party’s recent rejection of both introducing reproductive leave as a new National Employment Standard (NES) and providing access to flexible work arrangements for reproductive health reasons is disheartening, writes employment and industrial lawyer Jessica Heron. It is a robust answer to the problem of insecure work. It will allow women to vary their hours and days of work to accommodate their symptoms without sacrificing their careers, while also balancing the operational needs of their employer.  #reproductivehealthleave #insecurework

Research overwhelmingly confirms that crises trigger gender-based violence. This occurs during health-related crises like the COVID-19 pandemic, where there was an explosion of violence when lockdowns confined women to their homes. Environmental crises also lead to rising violence. The evidence that climate and environmental issues have gendered impacts and require gendered responses is laid out in a new report by Women's Environmental Leadership Australia, as Dr Carla Pascoe Leahy explains in this piece. #genderbasedviolence #crises

Managers are reportedly spending more than five hours a week providing emotional support to their team members who are struggling with personal issues, a survey by Circle In has found. Due to the growing pressures to provide non-work related support to their team members, 75 per cent of managers said they were experiencing stress and burnout. “These results are pretty alarming,” Circle In co-founder Jodi Geddes said. “Managers are having to play the role of people leader and psychologist. The problem is a lot of the time they aren’t getting the support they need from their workplace.” #managers #burnout #stress

Women’s Agenda is hosting the 2024 Women’s Health and Wellbeing Summit, an essential one-day event on Wednesday, September 4, in Sydney. The summit will bring together experts and thought leaders to support the health and well-being of Australian women at home and at work. Supported by headline sponsor Nurofen and hosted by Walkley award-winning journalist, presenter and social commentator Jan Fran, the event will feature a variety of sessions ranging from mental and physical wellbeing to topics such as menopause, burnout, neurodiversity, endometriosis, fertility, sleep, migraines, and more. Find out more and get tickets here. #womenshealth #wellbeing