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Chiefs for gender equity

A project facilitating local government access to information by members of 'Chiefs for Gender Equity' to provide assistance and support to the LGA and councils to pursue gender equity strategies.

This project's final report and evaluation was completed on 2 July 2020

Project approach

This project supported Local Government representation on Chiefs for Gender Equity for a period of 12 months.

The Local Government representative, appointed by the Equal Opportunities Commission, is Victor Harbor CEO Victoria MacKirdy.

The LGA and councils has a focus on diverse and inclusive representation, particularly at the 2018 council elections, including increasing the number of women elected to local government.  Supporting a sector representative on CFGE gave the LGA and councils the benefit of the CFGE network, resources and media platforms.

The following update report has been provided by the Local Government sector CFGE representative:

As the Local Government Sector Representative over the last 12 months I have
provided leadership in the following areas specifically for the Local Government Sector:
  • Participated in a media campaign to promote and advocate for ‘Share the Care'.
  • SA’s Chiefs for Gender Equity are calling for local businesses to look harder at closing the gap.
  • 9.8 per cent pay gap for women by reducing barriers for fathers who want to work flexibly and help share the role of primary caregivers (Published in the Advertiser on Saturday 1 September 2018).
  • Prepared and presented at the Local Government Women’s Network Conference to an audience of over 200 from our Sector on – Advocating for Gender Equity – What we can do as a Sector to improve in this space.  
  • Wrote and published an article on why more women should be working in our sector: titled 'Aim higher: why we need more women in local government' (Published in the Advertiser, October 2018).

Each Chief was required to developed a Gender Equity Framework to demonstrate how their own organisation was addressing the issues. Collectively all the different Frameworks were used as tools to guide others to implement improvements within their organistions – what are you doing, where and how.

As my role on Chiefs for Gender Equity has become known over the last 12 months I have provided advice and support to CEO’s and practitioners within our Sector. I have access to a wide range of tools and policies from other industries and sectors shared by the Chiefs for Gender Equity.

Some examples include: Flexible Works Options, Training Material on Unconscious Bias, Workplace support for domestic violence and leadership models.

I believe my role on the Chiefs for Gender Equity has elevated the Local Government Sector and enabled us to work alongside other sectors in South Australia to profile the work we are doing in ensuring that there are equal opportunities for men and women and that we are making significant progress to ensure that this change continues.

A copy of the presentation given to the Local Government Women's Network Conference has been circulated to members.  Copies of relevant media articles cannot be published due to copyright restrictions.

Measures included the level of two-way communication between the sector representative and the LGA, and the actions undertaken to support the LGA's council elections awareness campaign.

No formal evaluation of the project has been undertaken.

Communication between the LGA and the sector representative was continually maintained throughout the 12 months through meetings, emails and regular exchanges of information.

The most significant outcome from an LGA perceptive throughout the 12 months was the profile built through a series of media articles aimed at increasing the number of women participating in local government.  This may have contributed to the increase in the number of women nominating for and being elected to positions on councils.

Ratings and comments

Project snapshot
Project number: 2018.16
Project category: Human Resources
Start date: 21 Sep 2018
Completion date: 31 Aug 2019
Recipient: LGA
Status: Complete
Funds approved: $5,000
2018.16