International Women's Day is celebrated on 8 March 2024.
From Charles Sturt University's What's New and News
The theme of International Women's Day 2024 is “Count Her In: Invest in Women. Accelerate Progress". It brings attention to the fact that women's economic empowerment is central to a gender-equal world. When women are given equal opportunities to earn, learn and lead, entire communities thrive.
This year we are celebrating women at Charles Sturt who are accelerating the progress of gender equity. From Monday, 4 March, profiles will be shared of women in the University who are leading the way in creating change by role modelling, breaking down barriers and supporting and advocating for others. These include:
- Professor Renée Leon, Vice-Chancellor
- Heather McGregor, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Student Success
- Professor Sally Totman, Head of School, Social Work and Arts
- Professor Sharynne McLeod, Professor of Speech and Language Acquisition
- Dr Donna Bridges, Senior Lecturer in Sociology, Lead - Gender and Feminist Studies Network.
On Friday 8 March, from 10am, there will be a panel discussion moderated by Michelle Crosby, Chief Operating Officer. Featuring each of our profiled staff members, the panel will focus on the impacts of gender on career trajectory, women in non-traditional roles and women supporting women.
All Charles Sturt staff are invited to attend.
You can find the calendar invitation to the panel discussion and profiles on the Respect, Equity and Diversity webpage: https://www.csu.edu.au/division/people-culture/current-staff/respect-equity-and-diversity/gender
Here is my input for the CSU blog: https://thinkspace.csu.edu.au/diversityinclusion/2024/03/07/distinguished-professor-school-of-education-sharynne-mcleod/
- Profile questions for International Women’s Day 2024
- Name: Sharynne McLeod
- Role at the University: Distinguished Professor, School of Education
- What was your first paid job? Working in my parents’ shoe store
- The Science and Gender Equity Agency (SAGE) uses the analogy of a career as a pathway with open and closed gates. Can you tell us about your career pathway and some of the gates, or unexpected turns you have experienced? The Early Childhood Interdisciplinary Research Sturt Scheme is a wonderful example of a way that Charles Sturt University has opened gates for many early and mid career researchers and HDR students to grow as researchers, academics and people (https://researchoutput.csu.edu.au/en/organisations/early-childhood-interdisciplinary-research-group). Over the three years of funding (2021-2024) our 5-woman strong leadership team have worked with over 40 people across Charles Sturt in fields such as early childhood education, speech pathology, nursing, psychology, physiotherapy, and data science (https://earlychildhoodresearch.csu.domains/researchers-and-publications/).
- Inclusion and gender equity are such hot topics today, but it hasn’t always been that way. What changes to these have you experienced or noticed during your career? I have a background in speech pathology and early childhood. Therefore, I have spent a lot of my career undertaking research about and advocating for inclusion of people with disabilities – particularly those with invisible disabilities that impact speech, language, hearing, communication as well as other invisible reasons that impact people’s ability to fully participate (e.g., mental health, cancer treatments etc.). I am passionate about everyone’s right to communicate. During my career I have been able to co-create opportunities to advocate for inclusion. For example, I have advocated for communication rights at the United Nations and the World Health Organization and many other places across the world.
- To allow us to get to know you better, what is something, besides gender equity of course, that you are passionate about? I think that children have a lot to teach us. Our recent submission to the United Nations has many examples of their wisdom: https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/issues/youth/hr75/submissions/subm-views-youth-led-cso-early-childhood-interdisciplinary-resear.pdf
Thank you Arifa for your generous gift "Dare to dream: A new journey is ready to begin" "Let your cup always be full of happiness"
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| Arifa Rahman and Sharynne |
