AWE SUPPORTS ‘YES’
Indigenous Australians have always been a part of this country. They are not illegitimate. They have a right to be in the nation’s birth certificate.
AWE SALUTES THE MATILDAS
Women’s soccer was banned in the 1920s.
A century on: Women’s World Cup and the Matildas changed the game. Women’s sport is firmly on the agenda.

THE QUESTION
A Proposed Law: To alter the Constitution to recognise the First Peoples of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice. Do you approve this proposed alteration?
This YES 2023 image has been produced especially for AWE. You are welcome to save it and use it on your own website.
Latrobe Ladies Football Club 1921. Image: State Library of Queensland
Too successful. Has to stop.
A crowd of 10,000 turned up to the Gabba in Brisbane to watch Australia’s first public match in 1921. It was doing well in England too, but proceeds from some women’s matches were being donated to charities as revenue was not controlled by the English Football Association. Well! That had to stop. So women’s soccer teams were banned from using football grounds in both England and Australia.
– OF CURRENT INTEREST –
News. Events. Television. Movies. Links worth a look.
Gold Diggers – Australian comedy
Premiered July 2023 on ABC TV and ABC iview.
It’s 1853 and the wildly optimistic Brewer sisters set out to get lucky, but first they must conquer the lads, lice, and lechery of the Australian Gold Rush. This female-focused story was produced by Jack Yabsley with the assistance of a writer’s room full of Australian women – First Nations writers, Chinese Australian writers, and queer writers.
Safe Home – Mini-series
This 2023 Australian drama four-part miniseries premiered on SBS Television and SBS on Demand in May 2023. Phoebe leaves her job at a law firm and begins work at a family violence centre and she must navigate a path that isn’t always clear, and people that aren’t always as they appear.
TEDx WOMEN – MALDON
Saturday 28 October in Maldon, Victoria.
Limited ticket availability
Rock up to Maldon to hear 18 amazing women speak at this inaugural event, designed to engage attendees with uplifting ideas on advancing gender equity. Maldon is a lovingly preserved Australian gold mining town in Victoria. Good food and wine region, so add brilliant conversation to create a great day out.
Taliban decides that Beauty Salons threaten Morality.
KABUL, July 4 – Reuters reports that the Taliban administration in Afghanistan has ordered beauty salons to close within a month.
“The deadline for the closing of beauty parlours for women is one month,” Mohammad Sadiq Akif, a spokesperson for the Ministry for the Prevention of Vice and Propagation of Virtue, said on Tuesday, referring to a ministry notice.
– WOMAN WATCH –
Celebrating success. Highlighting dubious practice.

Ukraine's Witch
()
Olha Bihar was a lawyer in Kyiv while completing her PhD in tax law. Then Russia invaded Ukraine. Now she is an artillery officer with the call sign Witch. She uploads videos to TikTok about life on the front lines to help spread the word about what is happening. See her version of a Nail Salon in the video in this ABC article.

Sotheby's Stuffs Up
Sotheby’s organised an auction of Glitch Art NFTs by recognised artists. Patrick Amadon was the first to pull his work when it was pointed out that not one female digital artist was represented, making the point that it was ironic because some of the best-known Glitch artists were women. Other male artists followed. Sotheby’s redressed the gender balance and relaunched in April 2023.
Not sure what Glitch Art is? Amadon’s work.

Brains behind GPT
Mira Murati is an engineer who is currently Chief Technology Officer at OpenAI. She is the brain behind ChatGPT, an AI language model that has revolutionised the way we interact with machines.

Space Flight Director
Dr Makenzie Lystrup has been appointed director of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (April 2023), which has a $4 billion portfolio and workforce of 10,000 scientists and engineers.

Smuggled to Antarctica
Image:© Australian Antarctic Division
In 1961 women were not allowed to visit Antarctica but artist Nelle (Nel) Law became the first Australian woman to set foot on Australian Antarctic Territory after she was smuggled aboard a research ship by her husband. Apparently, the outcry was very loud!
So. This happened…
‘Use my correct title!’
Australia’s leader of the opposition – Peter Dutton – struggles with the concept of a woman deputy speaker. He is called out for misgendering her during a debate in December 2022, after which he continued to improperly address her. Watch the count (1.46 mins).
That speech: A decade later
Julia Gillard reflects on the most famous speech ever made in the Australian parliament in an interview with David Wenham (2.47 min).
Want to hear it again?
I will not be lectured to about sexism and misogyny by this man.
This video has been watched more than 6 million times (14.59 mins).
AWE supports the vision:
End gender-based violence in one generation.
AUSTRALIA, WE HAVE A PROBLEM
- On average, a woman is killed by an intimate partner every 10 days
- One in 3 women has experienced physical violence since the age of 15
- One in 5 women has experienced sexual violence.
National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022-2032
40 YEARS OF ADVOCACY
AWE celebrates 40 years of advocating for the full participation of women and girls in all dimensions of Australian society. We’ve written reports and submissions, responded to action plans, held conferences, served on committees, and appeared at government inquiries.

AWE members come together at the 2022 Annual Dinner.

REDRESS
30 Years Retrospective Edition
Redress was first published in 1992, over 30 years ago. I wrote the editorial for that first edition and am now bemused by the seemingly insightful revelation at that time that women have a different worldview from men, and full contribution from both is essential to the future wellbeing of our world in all its dimensions. The journal was started to help redress this balance, hence the name. Thirty years later this seems blindingly obvious, but we are not there yet.
In its 30-year history, Redress has presented a diverse and powerful collection of articles that explore the challenges that exist in Australia and beyond in relation to the full participation of women and girls in all facets of society.
For this retrospective edition, women who have been past editors were asked to nominate articles that have lingered in their memory. Each woman writes an introduction to explain their choice and the article is reproduced in full.
Marilyn Harvey, Guest Editor
Roselynne Anderson
Memorial Bursary
We invite applications for a bursary to the value of $2,500 in memory of former AWE president Roselynne Anderson.
There are two bursaries each year for AWE members to attend a conference of their choice. Applicants must be financial members of AWE and be in early to mid-career.
PUBLISHED FOR 30 YEARS
We capture the issues of the time, celebrate the wins, and champion the rights of women and girls in education and society generally.
- Original content
- Authentic voice
- Topics that matter
There is still much work to be done.
‘Gender equality is growing more distant. On the current track, UN Women puts it 300 years away. Women’s rights are being abused, threatened and violated around the world’.
UN Secretary-General António Guterres. 8 March 2023
