The Hon. Kate Ellis MP

Recent Speaker

Minister for Employment Participation and Childcare; Minister for the Status of Women.

March 9, 2011

Celebrating 100 years of International Women’s Day - where to from here

Celebrating 100 years of International Women’s Day - where to from here?

International Women’s Day is a chance to celebrate how far we have come and the tremendous progress that has been made by and for women in those 100 years.

Women have the right to vote and run in elections. Women are no longer forced to leave the workforce upon marriage, nor are we barred from having a credit card or taking out a mortgage in our own name.

More recent advances for women mean that we are benefiting from Australia’s first paid parental leave scheme, our rights in the workplace are properly protected and the Government is investing to ensure child care is affordable and accessible.

We have a female Prime Minister, a female Governor General and three of our seven High Court judges are women.
Yet despite these very public illustrations of women in leadership, the reality is that we still have a long way to go when it comes to gender equity in Australia.

In her first address to the National Press Club as the Minister for the Status of Women, Kate Ellis asks the important question – where to from here?