Tanya Plibersek to launch International Women’s Day at UNSW

A breakfast event to be opened by Shadow Minister for Women Tanya Plibersek will mark the beginning of a busy day celebrating International Women’s Day at UNSW.

Plibersek, Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Shadow Minister for Education, Shadow Minister for Women and Member for Sydney, will open the International Women’s Day Breakfast which is being held in the Tyree Room, John Niland Scientia Building, from 8.30am.

Other speakers at the event will include Professor Rosalind Dixon, joint Lead for the Grand Challenge on Inequality; Professor Eileen Baldry, Chair of the Equity, Diversity & Inclusion Board; Professor Laura Poole-Warren, Gender Diversity Champion; and Australian Human Rights Centre Director Professor Andrea Durbach, who is leading the Strengthening Australian University Responses to Sexual Assault and Harassment Project.

All speakers will explore the day’s theme as selected by the United Nations, Be Bold for Change: Sexual Violence, Women’s Rights, Women’s Power.

At a separate breakfast event in Sydney, Scientia Professor Jane McAdam, Director of the Andrew & Renata Centre for International Refugee Law and Academic Lead for the Grand Challenge on Refugees & Migrants, will learn if she has been chosen as the NSW Premier’s Woman of the Year.

The award recognises and celebrates the outstanding contribution made by women across NSW to industry, community and society. The other finalists are cochlear implant surgeon Catherine Birman, cardiothoracic and heart lung transplant surgeon Emily Granger, and Fran Boyle, Professor of Medical Oncology at the University of Sydney and Director of the Patricia Ritchie Centre for Cancer Care and Research at the Mater Hospital North Sydney.

The winner will be chosen by Premier Gladys Berejiklian.

Entrepreneur Kristal Kinsela, a post-graduate student at AGSM @ UNSW Business School, is among the finalists for Aboriginal Woman of the Year, with the winner to be chosen by the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Sarah Mitchell. 

The day will also see the launch of the Athena SWAN Gender Equity Survey by UNSW President and Vice-Chancellor Professor Ian Jacobs.

The anonymous online survey, which will be open for two weeks, will be sent to more than 15,000 university staff and explore issues around workplace culture, participation and promotion, training and career development, flexible work, parenting and carer responsibilities.

Also online, Human Resources has put together A Day in the Life Of, in which six UNSW women give a first-hand account of what they pack into a typical work day.

UNSW is again conducting a clothing drive to support the charity Dress for Success, whose mission is to improve the employability of women in need by providing them with professional clothing suitable for job interviews and to wear to work. Look for the designated drop-off points across the Kensington campus until 15 March to leave work-appropriate clothing, shoes and accessories as well as new, unopened toiletries and makeup.

From noon until 3pm, all are welcome at a Postgraduate Council High Tea with free sandwiches, cakes and tea. Go to the PGC Lounge, Level 2, Arc Precinct, Basser Steps.

In the evening, the SRC Women’s Collective will host a screening of the critically acclaimed documentary She's Beautiful When She's Angry, about the birth of the women's liberation movement in the 1960s. The film will be followed by a discussion. The screening is in Red Centre Theatre G001, arrive at 6pm for a 6.15pm start.

Further afield, Professor Emma Johnston, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Research) and incoming Dean of Science, is delivering a series of keynote addresses celebrating International Women’s Day, presented by the Australian Embassy in Beijing and Consulates-General in Guangzhou, Shanghai, Chengdu and Hong Kong.