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Coda Ethics: Conversation 2

Not all women experience discrimination to the same extent or in the same ways.

The pandemic has resulted in a dramatic increase in women’s care giving responsibilities to both children and the elderly.

Additionally, everyone is in the home, so the domestic load has increased.

Prior to the pandemic women in Australia were spending on average 1.7 hours more per day on care and domestic duties than men; and now, in the pandemic, this has increased by a staggering 50% to mean that women are providing 2.5 more hours of care than men!

We need to disrupt… So that both men and women can both work in high value roles from caring through to strong technical roles as well.

We need to redistribute paid work and domestic work more evenly between men and women.

Elizabeth Broderick

Elizabeth has brought together captains of industry, sport, governments and Defence Force chiefs to address gender inequality in Australia and beyond. As Australia’s longest serving Sex Discrimination Commissioner (2007-2015), Elizabeth worked tirelessly to break down structural and social barriers faced by women and men, and to promote gender equality. Her review into the treatment of women in the Australian Defence Force led to sweeping cultural reforms.

She established and convenes the globally recognised ‘Male Champions of Change’ strategy, enlisting a ‘who’s who’ of powerful male leaders to tackle workplace gender inequality. She is a powerful and influential voice in the struggle for gender equality, enlisting both women and men as agents of change. In 2017 Elizabeth was appointed by the United Nations in Geneva as a Special Mandate Holder and Independent Expert on Discrimination against Women. She is a member of the Council of the Order of Australia and in 2016 Elizabeth was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia and was named 2016 NSW Australian of the Year. She is an Honorary Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technology and Engineering and holds Honorary Doctorates of Law from the University of Sydney, University of New South Wales and University of Technology Sydney and Honorary Doctorates from Deakin, Edith Cowan and Griffith Universities.

@LizBroderick