Achieving gender equity in the Australian Honours system with DPC

In 2018, less than one-third of nominations in Australia’s Honours system were for women. This means fewer awards go to women. Men have consistently received around 70% of the awards since the Order of Australia began in 1975.

Following the equality strategy, Safe and Strong, we worked with the Victorian Department of Premier and Cabinet to start a movement to achieve equal representation in these prestigious awards, as one way of creating greater visibility and recognition of women’s achievements and contributions.

The starting point for the initiative was to bring women in leadership and positions of influence in their communities together with subject matter experts to discuss the issue, uncover the underlying reasons why so few women were being nominated and co-design solutions.

We brought together 56 women from diverse communities, industry sectors and cultural backgrounds for a full-day workshop to generate ideas and momentum for change.

Building on their ideas, and with ongoing targeted co-design activities, we created a public campaign, nomination toolkit and a website to share the stories of women recipients, helping to reframe preconceptions of who can be nominated for an Australian Honour.

‍

Working with MAKE was the best part of the collaboration process.  In our co-design workshop we worked with people who make our community special.  Their voices were heard and Recognition Matters is the product of that.  We continue to grow with our community and reflect this in our products and services.

Stacey Williams – Victorian Government Department of Premier and Cabinet