The National Association of Women in Construction’s (NAWIC) Tasmanian chapter will play a major role in giving females a clearer path to be heavily involved within the island state’s built environment.
Sex Discrimination Commissioner Kate Jenkins. Source: AAP/David Moir
When Kate Jenkins was growing up in the 70s on her family orchard in outer Melbourne with two brothers, she vividly remembers watching a news report about Deborah Lawrie (known as Deborah Wardley while married), becoming Australia’s first female pilot to fly with a major airline after winning a landmark sex discrimination case again Ansett Airlines.
“I have a very strong memory of seeing Deborah on the front page of the newspaper when she went to the High Court after being denied a role as a pilot purely on the basis of sex. As a 10-year-old girl, I was enraged,” recalls Jenkins.
Across the world, this week marked another milestone in #EnoughIsEnough activism.
In Australia, huge rallies on the weekend called for an end to sexual violence. The trigger was claims by Brittany Higgins, a young political staffer in Canberra, that she had been raped in Parliament House and that her complaints had been ignored.
In London, tens of thousands of women rallied to protest the abduction, rape and murder of Sarah Everard in a large park near the centre of London – allegedly by a policeman. In New York, Governor Andrew Cuomo is fighting furiously to defend himself against allegations of sexual misconduct and harassment.
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