On Saturday 8th March we marched in solidarity and support of Women in Australia and the USU!

International Women’s Day is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity.

Workers have been at the front of International Women’s Day in Australian since it was first held in 1928, with women gathering together to demand equal pay, paid leave and an eight hour working day.

Almost one hundred years later, we’re still taking crucial action to lift women’s wages and drive fairer workplaces.

Without these changes won by union members and introduced by the Albanese Government, working women would be thousands of dollars worse off on average.

Women can’t afford to go back to a government that see their work being undervalued and underpaid.

On International Women’s Day, we celebrate the most recent achievements that working women have won – but we know that the biggest risk to these achievements is Dutton.

Full-time working women are $7,800 better off than they would have been, if the Coalition’s nine years of wage-cutting policies had remained in place.

And Dutton’s plans to slash bargaining rights, make more jobs more insecure and weaken workplace laws will send working women backwards.

Speaking to crowds at the International Women’s Day rally in Melbourne in 2022, ACTU secretary Sally McManus said “History only gets us there if we walk there or if we’re pushing there. It’s not going to happen by itself.”

And in the three years since then, that’s exactly what union members have done: made history by driving out the anti-worker Coalition from federal government, and going on to win new work rights and reforms that have led to wage rises, a lower gender pay gap, better job security and more flexible work for working women.

The full benefit of these reforms are yet to be felt – but only if we protect them from Peter Dutton.

Dutton’s Coalition in opposition opposed nearly every single one of twenty reforms supporting fairer pay for women – and have threatened to tear up some of them if re-elected.

Let’s not go backwards!

Check out the photos of the Unions NSW Women’s Conference that the Emily Callachor Award winner Kim Bush attended with USU Organiser Zoe.