Australian women are in the frontlines of our nation’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the lead-up to the announcement of the 2020 Queen’s Birthday Order of Australia awards, community movement Honour a Woman and the Workplace Gender Equality Agency are encouraging all state and territory governments to develop and embed gender equality-focused nomination processes for the Australian Honours to ensure women receive due recognition for their essential work.
“Honour a Woman’s advocacy has contributed to more women being honoured in the Order of Australia over the last three years”, said Honour a Woman co-founder, Dr Elizabeth Hartnell-Young. “However, this improvement in gender equality will only be sustained when there are deliberate mechanisms to generate nominations of women in each state and territory.”
The majority of Honours are now awarded to men (approximately 60%) and statistics provided by the Governor General’s Office to Honour a Woman show significant gender disparities across the states and territories in the 2020 Australia Day Honours:
Western Australia: 28.8% of the 52 awards went to women
Australian Capital Territory: 32.1% of the 28 awards went to women
Northern Territory: 35.7% of the 14 awards went to women
New South Wales: 36% of the 257 awards went to women
Queensland: 41.1% of the 112 awards went to women
Tasmania: 46.9% of the 32 awards went to women
South Australia: 49.2% of the 61 awards went to women
Victoria: 49.8% of the 265 awards went to women
“The pathway for embedding equality in the Order of Australia is for states and territories to have dedicated systems to ensure outstanding women are nominated. Victoria has reached gender equality through a state-driven nomination program,” said Carol Kiernan, co-founder, Honour a Woman. “Recognition Matters has increased the proportion of Honours awarded to Victorian women from 35% in the 2018 Australia Day Honours to almost 50% in 2020. Other states such as South Australia and Tasmania did well in the last Honours round compared to previous years, but unless dedicated systems are in place, we risk leaving equality to chance.””We welcome the recent progress towards gender equality, but the results are not consistent nor sustained around Australia,” said Libby Lyons, Director of the Workplace Gender Equality Agency and an Ambassador for Honour a Woman. “If we’re serious about improving gender equality, then it’s necessary to set targets and measure and report on progress to achieve sustainable change.”
Honour a Woman proposes four possible models: appointing an awards officer to support community nominations (the Victorian model); forming a sub-committee of existing state councils for women; funding a national group such as the National Council of Women to undertake the task through its affiliates; or establishing Order of Australia Nominating Working Parties in each jurisdiction.
“The states and territories have a vital role in ensuring that the Order of Australia recognises the exceptional contribution of all Australians,” said Ruth McGowan OAM, co-founder Honour a Woman. “It is time for action to celebrate men’s and women’s achievements equally.”
