Workshop to focus on gender equality

COMMUNITY members from across the Loddon Mallee are invited to share their personal experiences of gender inequality, and learn the skills and tools to respond to it, in an upcoming online workshop.

Introduction to Gender Equality and Respect is the first in a series of sessions hosted by Women’s Health Loddon Mallee aimed at building conversation around the issue.

Health promotion and gender equality worker at WHLM, Dr Genine Hook, will lead the introductory workshop on 18 August, to be followed by sessions on bystander action, inclusive workplaces and gender in the early years.

She said the series would allow participants from across the region to connect with one another and discuss diverse lived experiences.

“In that way we’re facilitating the community talking to each other across the Loddon Mallee which is really valuable to hear about tips and challenges that we’re all facing in different communities, and we learn from those,” she said.

“Often people are experiencing things in isolation and these workshops are an opportunity to share those experiences and for us as a women’s health service to provide some context and some ideas to respond.”

The workshop will draw on the 2016 Victorian Royal Commission into Family Violence, which made a link between gender stereotypes and domestic violence.

“The social structures that are in place that have enabled, in some elements, violence against women, this workshop is starting to speak back to that and starting to challenge people’s assumptions and the norms around gender and to use examples of where they interact,” Dr Hook said.

“I talk a little bit about cricket clubs as a single parent and how that is to be the female parent going into a cricket club… and then we’ll draw on the experiences of the people that come to our workshop and start to get a picture of what’s happening in our community.

“Then we’ll talk a little bit about how stereotypes and norms work and also the way they’re linked with social structures, including things like unconscious bias and intersectionality.

“We’re trying to get that balance of creating some case studies and experiences, and also the conceptual ideas around that that really start to shape people’s thinking, and then their ways of disrupting those norms.”

The free workshop is open to all and WHLM CEO Tricia Currie said it could facilitate a deeper understanding of gender equality for participants and provide an opportunity for further discussion.

“Sometimes what happens is that people in these conversations begin to see something that they’ve not seen before,” she said.

“What we do know is so powerful about this work is that once you have seen, you cannot unsee what gender inequality is, so it often leads the way for more conversations, deeper conversations.”

To register for the Introduction to Gender Equality and Respect workshop, visit bit.ly/3lG9oKS.