PUBLIC LECTURE: The Future for Men and Women in 21st Century Australia

In this address, Pru Goward will examine the contribution of gender equality to the national interest and its connections with other national goals such as economic growth, social stability and demographic sustainability. She considers the role that demographic change and globalisation will play in Australia’s future and anticipates the changes which will be required in the way men and women work and live together if we wish to continue to be a prosperous and stable democracy.

Biographical note: Pru Goward became federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner for a five year period in July 2001. Following the introduction of the Age Discrimination Act in 2004, Pru Goward was also appointed Commissioner Responsible for Age Discrimination. In this role the Commissioner undertakes educational activities to promote the law which aims to reduce barriers faced by younger and mature age people in public areas of life.

She is an economist by training and a broadcaster by practice. She spent 19 years with ABC TV and Radio as a current affairs journalist and later as a political reporter and commentator. Pru also wrote extensively for newspapers and magazines during that time.

Pru has also been a high school teacher, a university tutor in Economics, a Broadcast Journalism lecturer at Canberra University, a media consultant and freelance writer. In 1997 she became Executive Director of the Office of the Status of Women in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, serving a number of ministers as well as the Prime Minister. During that time the Office became responsible for a $50 million Domestic Violence Prevention Programme and advised the Government on the fairer division of superannuation assets for divorcing couples.

Pru was also Government Spokesperson during the Sydney Games and was responsible for developing Olympic and Paralympic media strategies for all Commonwealth agencies.

Pru is also the author of 'A Business of Your Own', a study of success strategies for women in business and also jointly of a biography of the Prime Minister, John Howard, with her husband David Barnett. She is the patron of the ANU’s Aussie Rules Football Club, Anglicare, Flair and Good Beginnings. She sits on the boards of the John Curtin School for Medical Research and the Council of Australian Arab Relations.

In 2004 she was nominated by 'The Australian' as one of the most forty influential Australians and by the Australian Financial Review as one of the country’s top cultural and industrial relations influencers. Her speeches have been reproduced in published collections and in 2001 she was awarded a Centenary Medal for her services to journalism and women’s rights.

ALL WELCOME. NO RESERVATION REQUIRED.