2011: The year that was

2011: The year that was

Chelsea Lewis, Communications Manager for the YWCA of Adelaide, recently reflected on the some of the positive things we have seen happen in 2011 in relation to the advancement of women’s rights, women’s leadership and women’s safety.  Rebecca Richards at the age of 23 became Australia’s first Indigenous Rhodes Scholar. She arrived at Oxford University in September. Brazil has its first female President in Dilma Rousseff, and closer to home Lara Giddings became Tasmania’s first female Premier.

Patricia Waria-Read was the inaugural winner of the new Australia Day Council of South Australia award to recognise outstanding women, the Women Hold Up half the Sky Award. And at the same Australia Day awards at the start of the year Anne Levy, the fourth woman ever elected to South Australia’s Parliament, became an Officer of the Order of Australia in recognition of her life-long fight for equality.

Christine Lagarde became the first woman to be Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund, and IBM appointed its first-ever female CEO – Virginia Rometty.

Eleni Glouftsis made amateur football league history in August as the first woman field umpire to officiate a division one game.

And the sports pages in the newspaper had one woman on its back page … that was Sam Stosur when she won the US Open.

Legacy – the organisation that assists war widows – appointed the first ever woman to its Board. You go Dianne Fairhead.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard appointed Penny Williams as Australia’s first Global Ambassador for Women and Girls, making Australia one of only a small group of countries to have a special women's ambassador. The Prime Minister also announced the Federal Government will fund the outcomes of the Equal Pay Test Case; and then ended the year with a Cabinet with more women Australia has ever seen and the announcement that Nicola Roxon will become the nation's first female attorney-general.

The ASX has seen the highest level of percentage increase of female appointments across the Boardroom Diversity Index. From a low base of 8.3 per cent in 2008 the percentage of ASX200 board positions held by women had grown to 10.9 per cent by March 2011.

And in the last few days we have seen thousands of women in Egypt marching through downtown Cairo to call for the end of military rule after images of soldiers attacking a female demonstrator became public.  

Thank you Chelsea for helping us take a moment to reflect on the year that has been.

YWCA Australia will be closed from 24 December and will reopen on Monday 3 January 2012.

We wish everyone a safe and happy break and a wonderful 2012.