The International Women’s Day community picnic was held on Saturday, and was a roaring success. WEL members got out in the sun to celebrate with a number of other women’s organisations and listen to the fabulous young women perform and speak.
A great day all round!
Helen L’Orange AM Chair, WEL National Coordinating Committee
I write to wish everyone a Happy International Women’s Day as we celebrate WEL’s 40thAnniversary.
WEL members will be attending the International Women’s Day community picnic at First Fleet Park on 10 March from Midday. Make sure you come along, meet with fellow WEL members and talk the future of feminism in good company.
WEL continues its advocacy for women’s equality and the protection of women’s rights.
WEL has lobbied successfully for many reforms over the past 40 years.
In 1972, when WEL began, women won equal pay, but only when they were performing identical work under the same award as men. This was only about 18 per cent of women. The February 2012 Fair Work Australia decision means that at last women have a law that should apply wherever work is undervalued simply because it is done by women.
Continue reading
Dorothy Simons was one of a stream of highly motivated women – starting perhaps with the suffragettes, proceeding to Germaine Greer and on to women forcing their way into the military front line – who refused to remain in the stereotyped roles of wives and mothers, sidelined in society, obeying husbands and bearing children.
Women, she said, should be free – to choose their careers, to decide whether they wanted to have children or not and, ultimately, when they wanted to die. When the Women’s Electoral Lobby decided to honour her in 2002, it presented her with the Grand Stirrer award, for ”inciting others to challenge the status quo”. Such activism involved some unpleasant scenes, such as battles with pro-life campaigners, but she remained steadfast. On family planning, she said: ”If you can’t control your fertility, you can’t control your life.” Continue reading
This International Women’s Day join your feminist community for a community picnic, live music & world-changing chatter.
Last year was the 100th Anniversary, so let’s look forward this year!
Meet some fabulous young women & hear their views.
Click here to download the poster
There will be fantastic feminists to chat to.
There will be lots of feminist organisations to find out about.
There will be feminists working for a world where there is creative stuff, fun & fairness for all.
There will be information for you to gather and spaces to talk & share ideas.
There will be fabulous female artists.
There will be you.
It’s your world. Start shaping it on IWD 2012.
Community workers were finally handed the pay rise they had been fighting for by Fair Work Australia on Wednesday.
The case was lodged by the Australian Services Union in collaboration with several other unions on March 11 2010 to deliver a better deal for community service workers who have long been undervalued.
FWA ruled that workers will receive a pay increase of between 19% and 40% over an 8-year period.
The decision shows that the introduction of the Fair Work Act can make a real difference for women, recognising for the first time, after many attempts and failed cases, that wage increases should be awarded to a highly feminised sector that is undervalued on the basis of gender.
While it is great to see workers finally granted these rises, it is disappointing that workers will have to wait this long to see the full increase. Many workers struggle to make ends meet and this is, for many, too long to wait.
Aside from this, the decision is the most significant regarding wages for women in 30 years and will make a real, positive difference.
WEL congratulates everyone who was involved in the long campaign and who worked so hard on this case to achieve this fantastic result.
Read the full decision here.
