The Australia China Business Council Victoria would like to extend a warm thanks to attendees of our International Women’s Day 2020 High Tea.
During these challenging times, it was heartening to see so many of our members and friends come together in support of women from around the world in business.
Coming from diverse backgrounds in science and the arts, speakers Cathy Foley, CSIRO and Katrina Sedgwick OAM, Australian Centre for the Moving Image delivered equally inspiring speeches with common themes: unconscious bias, pay disparity, lack of diversity in the workplace and in boardrooms, and the need to believe in yourself to succeed.
Cathy spoke on the importance of having women in STEM, a notion furthered by Katrina who introduced the updated acronym – STEAM, including Arts and highlighting the need for an increasingly diverse concept of knowledge and leadership. Both speakers highlighted the importance of having more females on company boards with ACMI leading the way by having an over 50% female board and executive team.
The good news is that there is increasing flexibility in workplaces, fair maternity/paternity leave is becoming more commonplace and this is allowing many women to stay in or return to the workforce. Steps in the right direction have been made – but there is still much further to go.
Over 400 guests enjoyed hearing from Cathy and Katrina and there was plenty of interesting questions from the audience that followed. Thanks to Rob Gell AM for moderating the conversations with such expertise.
We thank all attendees and especially acknowledge our sponsors, Swisse Wellness (for the 4th consecutive year), Australian Unity and Boeing for supporting such an important event for women on the Melbourne calendar.
#EachForEqual
