Weds 10 March 6-8pm

Speakers:
• Jane Sloane - IWDA
• Sok Panha - from Bantey Srei in Cambodia
• Hilary Charlesworth - ANU law professor

Moderator/MC: Helen Szoke – Victorian Equal Opportunity Commission

Did you know that of the billion people living on less than US$1 a day, 3 out of 5 are women and girls?

Just imagine the transformations that would follow if we could break through the barriers that keep so many women in poverty and without rights. We know that when women benefit from development and have a say, they share the benefits with their families and invest in their communities. Women use their earnings for the health and education of their children and themselves. And for every year beyond fourth grade that girls attend school, wages rise 20%, child deaths drop 10% and family size drops 20%. Yet even with this knowledge, mobilising the resources to enable women and girls to change their lives remains hard work.

International Women’s Day 2010 comes at an important time. There is five years to go until 2015, and an enormous amount to do to reach the Millennium Development Goal of gender equality and empowering women. And around the world, countries are assessing what has been achieved in the fifteen years since the UN World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995. Where are things at? When justice and self-interest both argue for investing in women, and when women’s leadership makes such a difference, why is change so slow? And what can we do to speed things up? Come along to this special International Women’s Day forum and find out how you can make a difference in women’s lives – and help change the world for the better!
Entertainment: women’s choir of Sierra Leone women refugees Kinkaley