Women Teachers and Girls Education Committee (WTGEC)

The 10 member Women Teachers and Girls Education Committee exists to carry out tasks relevant to women and girls in education, including:

• providing advice to QTU Executive and making recommendations to QTU State Council
• monitoring issues affecting women workers, such as paid maternity leave and discrimination
• reviewing and developing policy
• liaising with other QTU standing committees
• overseeing the organisation of the Biennial QTU Women’s Conference
• seeking expertise, information and advice from up to two relevant experts (who may not be QTU members), if required.

Letitia Murgha is this year's QTU nominee for the QCU Emma Miller Award, which recognises the outstanding contributions women activists make to their unions.

Letitia, who is a Kalkadoon and Kutjala woman, lives and works in Weipa, where she is the Parents as First Partners project officer/teacher at the Weipa Campus of Western Cape College. She has been nominated for the award by the QTU.

As well as working for the Department of Education and Training for 30 years, she is also a member of the Queensland Indigenous Education Consultative Committee, the peak advisory committee directly advising the Queensland Minister for Education and Training and the Federal Minister for Education, Employment and Workplace Relations on Indigenous education, training and higher education issues.

Within the QTU, Letitia has been the workplace rep at the Weipa campus of Western Cape College since 2005 and has been a member of Gandu Jarjum, the QTU's Indigenous committee, since 2006. She prides herself on having reinvigorated Labour Day marches in Weipa and takes an active role in QTU campaigns, such as the current Weipa hostel campaign.

Leititia is a fierce advocate for Indigenous students and their communities, and a staunch union activist. The QTU is very proud to have been able to nominate her as the first Indigenous recipient of the Emma Miller Award.

The Emma Miller award ceremony is on 19 November.

Leah Mertens
QTU Women's Coordinator

AWE The Association of Women Educators:

The Association of Women Educators was formed in 1983 by a number of women from the Queensland Teachers’ Union and the Queensland Independent Education Union in response to the need for a voice for women and girls in education.

AWE, through its branches and executive, works actively to further the participation of women and girls in education.
 
The Association:

• works to eliminate all forms of discrimination in curriculum, in institutional practices and in policies
• encourages and supports women, so that they can effectively pursue careers in education
• encourages and supports women in the decision-making processes at all levels in the educational system
• responds to issues of concern for women, both in education and the community
• lobbies for further reforms and change generally to enhance the position of women in education and society.

This work focuses on:

• education as a career path for women
• issues which affect the quality of education available to girls
• societal attitudes/actions which perpetuate a stereotypical view of women and create a barrier to the full participation of women in education and in society generally.

How the AWE works

International Women's Day 2011: 100 years of achievement

This year's International Women's Day marked 100 years of celebrating women's achievement, 100 years in which the status of Queensland women has changed hugely, largely as a result of the vision and persistence of generations of change-makers.

In 1911, more than one million women and men across Europe attended the first International Womens' Day rallies, campaigning for women's rights to work, vote, be trained and hold public office and calling for an end to discrimination. The first Australian International Women's Day rally was held in 1928, with Brisbane's first following the year after.

Australian women (excluding Aborigines, Torres Strait Islanders, Asian and South Pacific Islanders) were able to vote in federal elections by 1902, and in 1905, Queensland women won the right to vote in state elections. Indigenous Queenslanders gained the right to vote in federal elections in 1962, and state elections in 1965.

Much of the fight for women's suffrage in Queensland was led by the Woman's Equal Franchise Association, headed by unionist Emma Miller. The Queensland Council of Unions now hosts the Emma Miller Awards in her honour each year, celebrating the achievements of contemporary union women.

In 1915, Queensland became the second state to allow women to sit in parliament. In 1929, Irene Longman became the first woman to take a seat, although it wasn't until 1966 that a second, Vi Jordan, entered parliament. In 2001, however, the Queensland Parliament attained the highest proportion of women representatives of any Australian parliament, and one of the highest proportions in the world.

In the same year, Carol Martin became the first Aboriginal woman to be elected to any Australian federal, state or territory parliament as the member for Kimberley in Western Australia.

Now women are increasingly taking positions of political leadership, women like Anna Bligh, Julia Gillard, Quentin Bryce. They shoulder the blame and still occasionally receive criticism for such superficialities as, in Julia's case, an empty fruit bowl. However, these women are not to be overlooked.

Anna Bligh showed leadership, strength and compassion during the recent natural disasters. Despite that, she has been vilified for an article in the Australian Women's Weekly, in which she highlights just how difficult it is for women to achieve work and family balance.

In 2007–08, the UN Human Development Report ranked Australia second in the world on the gender-related development index and eighth in the world on the gender empowerment measure. However, we are currently ranked 50th internationally for women's participation in the workforce. It was not until the 1960s that the proportion of women in the workforce rose above 40 percent. By 2009, women's participation in the workforce was almost 60 percent.

While legislation was passed nearly 40 years ago for women to receive equal pay, they still earn almost 17 per cent less than men. The average Australian woman will earn almost $1 million less over her lifetime. Women often end up with less than half the superannuation savings of men when they retire, and are two and a half times more likely to live in poverty in their old age.

However, there are still many reasons to celebrate. In 2009, the Australian Services Union's successful pay equity case delivered major pay increases for Queensland social and community services workers.

Also, after years of agitating, the federal Labor government has finally introduced Australia's first national paid parental leave scheme. The 18-week scheme began at the start of 2011.

Unions, in particular strong union women, have been instrumental in obtaining paid parental leave, as they have in the fight for suffrage, equal pay, and many other rights for women. Unions continue to campaign for pay equity, quality jobs with family-friendly work arrangements, improved superannuation for women, accessible and affordable child and out-of-school hours care and effective equal opportunity and anti-discrimination legislation.

The QTU itself has a strong record in this area. The Union elected its first woman president, Ruth Don, way back in 1951, and campaigned for decades to secure equal pay for women teachers, which was eventually secured in 1967.

We have come a long way, but there's a fair way to go before women achieve the gender and pay equity that they deserve.

Leah Mertens
QTU Women's Coordinator