Reports
on the Women’s Roundtable Meetings with the Hon Dr Carmen Lawrence
Anna Robinson
Canberra: February 27 at Parliament House
Carolann Wolfgang and Anna Robinson attended this Meeting on behalf of WISENET
members. The meeting was well attended, with over 35 representatives from
different women’s groups present.
Unfortunately, the meeting was extremely depressing comprising three long hours of dissent and discontent. It seemed unbelievable that this state of affairs can exist in a country as affluent and progressive as Australia.
Some very serious issues were raised such as the increased incidence of physical and verbal abuse towards (predominantly female) nurses, growing isolation of women in rural areas, decreased funding and more complex application procedures for women’s self-help groups (Women with Disabilities, Catholic Women’s Association, Single Mothers’ Association, Women’s Electoral Lobby and so many more) and the effect this has on the wider community. The WISENET presentation focussed on improving the professional image and salaries of female scientists, taking less than six minutes.
Although professional advancement seemed a low-key issue compared to some others, it is important to lobby for the whole spectrum of needs – not just those of the socially or emotionally disadvantaged. But the question is arising now as to whether these are any longer specifically ‘women’s issues’? Many relate to the whole community and seem more relevant to workplace agreements, social reforms and politically motivated change. In responding to Office of the Status of Women invitation, another questions arises: are women converting societal problems into redundant gender issues because that is the context in which we are practised lobbyists and through which we have readier access to Government policy makers. Is it time for us to capitalise on that history and experience and start initiating policies that promote WISENET members as community representatives, to be consulted in broader higher level discussions?
Jo O’Neil
Melbourne: March 2001
There was a huge group of women representing a wide range of NGOs - 60 plus people in the room. Given the two-hour timeframe, each spokesperson had only a minute or two to put forward their organisation's issues. It appeared that the meeting in Melbourne was much larger than originally envisaged, and much larger than earlier meetings including the one in Canberra.
There was unanimous agreement for the reinstatement of the OSW and the need for advancing family friendly workplaces. Issues relating to “trafficking in women” were highlighted given some serious recent issues in this context in Victoria.
I happened to sit near the two reps from the AFUW, Margaret James and Jenny Strauss, and a couple of issues they raised included ones that I wished to raise, e.g. the casualisation of the workforce. This impacts directly on access to maternity/parental leave and other “family friendly policies”. Interestingly this was followed up by a young woman representing Women in Chemistry, who gave her own case history which indicated that since gaining her PhD she had never had any employment other than contract short term.
There were many common issues raised by the groups, and this reinforcement was quite effective, I thought. A number of similarly relevant points were also made by the young woman from the National Union of Students, who also pointed out an unduly high attrition rate of young women from tertiary education, perhaps related to student income support - or rather lack thereof.
Funding issues were discussed, with the suggestion from CL that it perhaps should not be for specific projects, but rather for infrastructure including access to communications. CL put forward the idea that there might be “peer review” for funding and that groups with common interests might put forward joint requests for funding.
One group represented there, who were particularly interested in possible discussions with WISENET, was WAVE (Women in Adult and Vocational Education). Their issues included childcare, foundation education for adults (38% adults have not completed secondary education), educational outcomes for girls (low rate of return to education amongst early school leaving girls) and career paths for women teachers in TAFE (sessional and short term contacts).