International Women’s Day in Queensland: A Legacy of Action
International Women’s Day (IWD) emerged from women’s labour movements across North America and Europe where women were demonstrated for the right to vote, to work, for fair conditions, and to end workplace discrimination. Early Women’s Days were also anti-war protests.
In 1975, the United Nations officially recognised 8 March as International Women’s Day globally. Australia’s first International Women’s Day was held in Sydney in 1928 and in 1929, the movement reached Brisbane. Brisbane has proudly maintained one of the longest continuous IWD march traditions in the country.
Queensland has long been a trailblazer in women’s rights:
• In 1894, women in Queensland gained the right to vote in state elections, making Queensland the second Australian colony to grant women suffrage, after South Australia.
• In 1929, Irene Longman became the first woman elected to the Queensland Parliament.
• In 1966, equal pay for women was a fight that strongly mobilised union women across Queensland.
• In 1998, Joan Sheldon became Queensland’s first female Deputy Premier.• In 2003, Dame Quentin Bryce became Queensland’s first female Governor and later Australia’s first female Governor-General.• In 2005, Dr Jeannette Young became Queensland’s first female Chief Health Officer, later serving as Governor of Queensland.
• In 2015, Annastacia Palaszczuk became Queensland’s first female Premier, leading the state with the nation’s first majority female cabinet.
• In 2024, Dr Haylene Grogan was appointed Queensland’s first female Aboriginal Chief Health Officer- a significant milestone for Indigenous women’s leadership in health.
Brisbane’s International Women’s Day marches have reflected workplace rights and equal pay to reproductive rights, domestic violence reform, leadership representation, and gender equity across industries. As we mark 8 March, we honour the generations of women in Queensland who have shaped our workplaces, our parliament, and our communities by actions.
In 2022, I was invited by @Penny Spalding to speak at the Australian Education Union’s Federal Women’s Conference about the potential of job-sharing platforms to connect the predominantly female part-time workforce to full-time job opportunities, following an audit and analysis of one of Australia’s largest public sector workforces (95,000+) who are predominantly female.
A gender equity audit involves exploring structural barriers, cultural norms, and system design. In many organisations, women are disproportionately represented in part-time roles, yet job-sharing pathways into senior or meaningful roles are rarely formalised. The goal of the audit is to determine whether the barriers are policy, leadership assumptions, operational systems, or awareness and design bias interrupters to move the needle. MItchell Services has significant expertise in gender equity audits.
This year’s official theme announced by UN Women Australia is “Balance the Scales” aiming to dismantle barriers such as discriminatory systems to achieve fair, inclusive, and accessible justice for women and girls globally. What is the one action you are taking?
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