HOW AUSTRALIAN COUNCILS CELEBRATED International Women’s Day

International Women’s Day (IWD), held on March 8, is a global day that celebrates the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women, and marks a call to action for accelerating gender equality.

The theme for IWD 2023 was #EmbraceEquity, aiming to promote discussion worldwide surrounding the concept of equality and why equal opportunities aren’t enough.

Here, Council Magazine has collated some of the ways councils around Australia embraced equality and celebrated IWD. There's still a lot of work to be done, but celebrating the wins is a critical part of that journey.

Victoria City Of Melbourne

To mark International Women’s Day, the City of Melbourne invited locals to choose three influential women to be built into contemporary statues – to immortalise the women who shaped the city and to celebrate their outstanding achievements across the years.

Currently only nine of the city’s 580 statues depict and celebrate women from Melbourne’s history – which is less than two per cent.

Greater Dandenong Council

For Greater Dandenong Council IWD 2023 was extra special because for the first time ever the Council is led by a female CEO, mayor, and deputy mayor, and almost half of the elected councillors are female.

Greater Dandenong celebrated with a breakfast hosted by Killester College and Greater Dandenong Council at the Springvale Town Hall, featuring guest speaker Jackie Nugara.

City Of Melton

City of Melton held multiple events throughout the week for IWD, including a Morning Tea at Melton Central Community Centre and a park run at Toolern Creek. On 2 March 2023, the City held its Annual IWD Dinner with guest speaker Rosie Batty.

MERRI-BEK CITY COUNCIL

Merri-bek celebrated IWD with multiple events held throughout March 2023. The celebrations began with the Barriers Faced by Culturally Diverse Woman Writers panel, held on 4 March.

The first Merri-bek Business Women’s Network – Coffee Conversations for 2023 was held on 7 March to celebrate IWD and connect the business women of Merri-bek.

As part of the Brunswick Music Festival, Merri-bek was also booming with female-lead music events.