Feminist Mural by quinn.anya in petya k.'s photostream on Flickr

I’m speaking at a feminist conference next weekend – F: A Festival, A Conference,  A Future. Organisers say this is the first major feminist conference held in Sydney in ten years. That’s a long time between feminist organising milestones here in NSW and perhaps a telling indication of where the feminist movement has been during that time, at least here in Australia, .

Given the slow progress we’ve made in the first decade of the 21st century to achieving our raison d-etre – genuine equality between the sexes – it’s understandable that questions have been raised as to how active and effective the feminist movement has been in recent years

Here in Australia women’s pay is still less than men’s – 79% of the full-time equivalent of men’s. Even for the same work. The Federal Government’s House of Representatives ‘Making it Fair’ Report into pay equity released in November 2009 found that inequities still exist in all industries and for women at all skill levels. And since 1992 the gender pay gap has grown – in other words we’ve gone backwards.

And that’s just pay. Continue Reading