Gender inequality investigation: Women ‘need to see it, to be it’
Published in The Australian Jewish News
with Sophie Deutsch.
March 22, 2021
“Women belong in all places where decisions are being made. It shouldn’t be that women are the exception.”
While the immortalised words of the late US Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg were uttered almost two decades ago, they continue to echo loudly, their resonance ever-poignant as the discussion around gender equality evolves.
Yes, there has been progress; in 1995, a mere 11 per cent of worldwide national parliamentarians were women; a figure that has now reached 25 per cent. It’s growth, but still, women occupy just one quarter of parliamentary roles. Such a statistic not only illustrates the pervasiveness of the broader issue, but underscores the glacial pace of positive change; at this current rate, it will take another 50 years to reach gender parity.
Closer to home, the Australian Jewish community is not exempt from such underrepresentation of women in positions of leadership, as revealed in extensive reporting by The AJN.