Federation members are encouraged to show their support for women and girls by participating in International Women’s Day activities, to advance gender equity and equality.
- On Friday 8 March, International Women’s Day, take a photo with one of our selfie signs and share it on your social media channels, tagging @teachersfed along with the hashtags #IWD2024 and #AEUwomen.
- If you are in Sydney on Saturday 9 March, join the International Women’s Day march at Sydney Town Hall from 11am. More details are here.
Invest in women
The union supports UN Women Australia’s theme for International Women’s Day, which is “Count her in: Invest in Women, Accelerate Progress.”
“While important progress has been made, women face significant obstacles to achieving equal participation in the economy. Without equal access to education, employment pathways, financial services and literacy, how can we ever hope to reach gender equality?” states UN Women Australia.
Federation’s 2023 Annual Conference decision Gender equity and equality in the public education workforce states: “The teaching profession as a whole represents a stark example of the significant barriers faced within the daily work and lives of teachers, with the prohibition of opportunities and participation through varying stages of their careers disproportionately affecting women, who are the bulk of the teaching workforce. These barriers affect all teachers and include, but are not limited to, a lack of secure, quality and flexible work, exacerbated by caring responsibilities, expensive childcare, inflexible parental leave, unequal parenting responsibilities and limited rights to access family friendly or other flexible work arrangements.”
Delegates endorsed (among other actions):
- exploring all avenues, including taking action under state or federal anti-discrimination legislation or other relevant legal action, to bring forward actions to address and redress part time unfilled teacher vacancies as systemic structural discrimination in schools
- ensuring permanent part-time employment is enhanced as a secure category of employment for TAFE members
- asserting guarantees and enforceable access to secure flexible working arrangements in schools and TAFE, including permanent part-time positions
- pursuing “right to disconnect” options in future industrial agreements to seek to embed systemic balance between work and care responsibilities
- developing a new Federation Affirmative Action Policy to reflect the changed contexts of our school and TAFE teachers including Federation as an employer
- an initial review, led by the women senior officers, of all Federation rules, policies, practices and officers working conditions to ensure that they are consistent with recommendations pertaining to gender equity and equality.
Resources
- UN Women Australia’s 2024 International Women’s Day Schools Kit – Register with the organisation here
- Federation has a number of resources related to women and Federation in the member portal, which may be of interest:
- Union wins for women poster
- Women’s History – set of 6 posters showing highlights of Federation’s campaign history for women
- Union Women - Union Strong poster
- Federation Library Hot Topics Guide – resources available for you to access and borrow.