BPW Adelaide has launched a campaign calling on the Premier of South Australia to request the Governor to add the Observance of International Women’s Day to the current March public holiday.  The world celebrates the contribution of women by marking International Women’s Day on 8 March each year.  About that time in SA there is a public holiday for a horse race.  BPW Adelaide advocates for recognising the contribution of women to SA by including them officially on this public holiday. 

International Women's Day is an official holiday in 26 countries: Afghanistan, Angola, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, China, Cuba, Georgia, Eritrea, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Madagascar, Moldova, Mongolia, Nepal, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and Zambia.  Why not Australia?

Women are 50% of the population and South Australia was the first state in the world to legislate for women to stand for Parliament, and the second (after New Zealand) to permit women to vote. Let's lead the way again. 

#IWDPublicHoliday #ProclaimBoth #LeadTheWayAgain

BPW Empowering Women – See what women can be

BPW Australia (the Australian Federation of Business and Professional Women) is marking International Women’s Day 2020 with a social media campaign to highlight positive role modelling to counter the “you cannot become what you cannot see” narrative. With a collective voice of over 25,000 members in Australia and Internationally, BPW members are looking to the future for women and girls.

“When we say ‘you cannot become what you cannot see’, are we suggesting today’s women & girls are somehow less imaginative, less innovative, less daring than previous generations. Are we discounting all those women who have indeed been what they have not seen?” Jacqueline Graham , BPW Australia President said.

“It always seems impossible until it’s done”. These were the great words of Helen Clark, previous Administrator of the UN Development Program and 37th Prime Minister of New Zealand

In the past 150 years, we have had women elected to Parliaments , as Prime Ministers and as Heads of State. We have women in armed forces , in space, scientists & explorers. We have leaders in education, in mining, banking and healthcare. We have women role models in start-ups , family businesses and multinational organisations.

“The narrative has become that (unless there has been a forerunner), women and girls are unable to imagine or engage in a career path. Our members are concerned that we are currently experiencing a fall-back from the gains of the past . Our members regularly hear that today’s girls “can’t be what they can’t see”. BPW understands that this belief is detrimental to the career choices offered to girls from year 10 and upwards” Jacqueline said.

BPW Australia members include women who are employers and employees ,from STEM, business ,trade and professional services. Our members share a common responsibility to provide visibility of all fields to next generation and to inspire them to take any career path they can imagine.

BPW Australia invites all women’s organisations to use this campaign to highlight the work and achievements of women. We have created social media hash tags #SeeWhatWomenCanBe and #BPWEmpoweringWomen

“Let’s be clear: of course we can be what we can’t see. But if there is a role model, why shouldn’t we be able to see her. How much easier would it be to follow the path, if we could find the women holding the sign post” Jacqueline said

BPW Australia campaign will include inspirational profiles from women breaking the glass ceiling in all business fields, including from the history of BPW Clubs in Australia. An early post highlights Peta Searle. Peta is the only female senior coach in the AFLW this year, up by one from previous year. Join the #SeeWhatWomenCanBe movement , follow us on Facebook @BPWAustralia and Twitter @BPWAust

2019 was extraordinary. It was devastating, frightening and overwhelming. But it has been something else too: hopeful. 2019 was absolutely the year of the girl.

We saw extraordinary girls and young women everywhere rising up and taking charge. Greta urged world leaders take urgent action on climate change. Malala is inspiring girls everywhere that an educated girl can make a difference.  For every Greta and every Malala, there are hundreds of brave girl activists in the developing world doing extraordinary work every day to combat child marriage, child trafficking, teen pregnancy, harassment and violence. We see these girls. We support them. We applaud them.

Plan International Australia developed a questionnaire for girls and young women between 12 and 25 about girls’ empowerment, leadership and role models. And they found girls have a plan.  Read this inspiring report.

An event which may be of interest to West Australian members has been shared by our friends in 100 Women.

Health, your superpower; a panel discussion with some of Perth's leading experts on women's health

The Newstart allowance, which has not increased in real terms in 25 years, is indexed to inflation, while other payments are tied to wages. This means the unemployment benefit continues to fall further behind living costs. Concerning research showing more than 80% of Newstart recipients are skipping meals to make ends meet.

https://www.newsmaker.com.au/news/376466/the-urgency-grows-for-raising-newstart#.XkvH9SgzbIU

Across the world, a new generation of women and men, and girls and boys, are speaking up for themselves and others, seizing the moment to reimagine economies, societies, and political systems so that they uphold human rights and achieve gender equality, leaving no one behind.

UN Women is bringing together the next generations of women’s rights activists with the gender equality advocates and visionaries who created the Beijing Platform for Action more than 2 decades ago. Collectively, these change agents can tackle the unfinished business of empowering women through a new multigenerational campaign: “Generation Equality: Realising women’s rights for an equal future”.

The Generation Equality Forum is a global gathering of civil society, convened by UN Women, as a global public conversation for urgent action and accountability for gender equality. It will be connected in real time through interactive satellite sessions to maximise participation. It will take stock of progress and set an agenda of concrete action to realise gender equality before 2030.

The Forum will kick off in Mexico City in May and culminate in Paris in July, and be informed by CSW session in New York in March. It will feed into the UN General Assembly in September when the United Nations will officially commemorate the 25^th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action.

BPW International has a Women, Peace and Security Taskforce led by Dr Anne Hilty, BPW Hong Kong.  BPW affiliates worldwide are encouraged to develop their own WPS project at club or federation level.

The Taskforce was established as BPW International’s response to the Landmark Resolution 1325 (2000) of the UN Security Council on the relationship between gender, peace and security.  There have been 6 additional resolutions since then.

The 4 pillars of R1325 are Prevention, Participation, Protection, and Relief and Recovery:

• 1.    Prevention of conflict and violence against women and girls in conflict and post-conflict situations.
• 2.    Equal participation of women and men in peace and security decision-making processes.
• 3.    Protection and promotion of the rights of women and girls rights in conflict situations.
• 4.    Reinforcement of women’s capacities to act as agents in relief and recovery.

The video Introduction to the BPW WPS project can be accessed by clubs interested in engaging with the international Taskforce and the WPS Taskforce Guidelines provide suggestions for advocacy and action with resources for our worldwide BPW affiliates to adopt and adapt according to their local needs.

We are in a time where more women are taking action by marching and sharing their stories. The media is amplifying our voices and asking hard questions of the institutions that continue to lock women out. Business leaders are under new pressure to demonstrate their companies are committed to being part of the gender equality solution.

BPW Australia is a founding member of the AGEC.  

The AGEC’s Manifesto for Gender Equality provides the framework for future campaigns, initiatives and priorities. It is a comprehensive statement of what true gender equality looks like and what is required to achieve it. Covering 12 dimensions of work and life, it identifies the causes of inequality, not just the symptoms. It will ensure we won’t stop this important work until we achieve equality for women across all dimensions of work, life and community.

http://www.apimagazine.com.au/property-investment/no-pay-gap-in-property-why-more-women-should-invest

2020 marks the 100^th anniversary of the establishment of the League of Nations — the intergovernmental organisation, headquartered in Geneva, that emerged from the ashes of WW1.  Although the League was branded a failure due to its inability to prevent WW2, its legacies continued long after 1939 when it folded. As the template for modern global governance, and direct precursor to the United Nations which was established in 1945, the League profoundly shaped the world we live in today.

This history parallels that of BPW.

BPW USA was formed in 1919 by our Founder, lawyer Lena Madesin Phillips and she worked to spread the organisation internationally, with BPW International established in 1930 in Geneva.  BPW International was one the international women's organisations that lobbied and influenced the League of Nations to include and involve more women, and subsequently the United Nations where BPW advocated strongly for the establishment of the Commission on the Status of Women.

This article in The Conversation charts the influence of Australian women and women's organisations on the work and focus of the League of Nations and the United Nations.