THE Surf Coast Shire\u2019s International Women\u2019s Day event last week took an interesting turn early on, as panellists debated the usefulness of the day\u2019s global theme \u201cbalance for better\u201d.<\/p>\n
Held at the Aireys Inlet Community Centre, the event had a panel featuring feminist and author Clementine Ford, Business in Heels\u2019 Jo Plummer and Vanessa Schernickau from the Great Ocean Road Coast Committee and attracted a sell-out crowd of about 160 people.<\/p>\n
Shire mayor Rose Hodge noted the \u201cbalance for better\u201d theme \u2013 which refers to the efforts to build a gender-balanced world \u2013 and first asked her fellow panellists what it meant to them in their professional lives.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hate the theme \u2018balance for better\u2019. I don\u2019t even know what it means, and I\u2019m not trying to be funny,\u201d Ms Ford replied.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt honestly to me sounds like something wishy-washy, like a slogan that enters one ear and goes out the other and actually requires no change and no discomfort on the part of the person hearing it.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt articulates this ongoing problem we have in the battle for gender equality of trying to make it so nice all the time\u2026 what are we asking for? \u2018Oh, we just want it to be a bit better\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want it to be better; I want it to be equal! I want women to not live in fear of their lives, I want women to be believed when they talk about the violence they experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Schernickau quipped that the \u201cbalance for better\u201d theme \u201cprobably means Pilates and pelvic floor exercises\u201d, but said workplaces had a responsibility to be safe and welcoming.<\/p>\n
\u201cDoes your workplace actually represent the community? Does it have gender balance? Is it diverse in other ways as well?\u201d<\/p>\n
Ms Plummer said it was important for people in the corporate world \u201cto be able to have these sort of meaningless slogans and to be able to have the conversation and to talk about: well, why?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBetter for who, better how? What does that mean?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
THE Surf Coast Shire\u2019s International Women\u2019s Day event last week took an interesting turn early on, as panellists debated the usefulness of the day\u2019s global theme \u201cbalance for better\u201d. Held at the Aireys Inlet Community Centre, the event had a panel featuring feminist and author Clementine Ford, Business in Heels\u2019 Jo Plummer and Vanessa Schernickau […]<\/p>\n