51³Ô¹ÏÍø

Kristine Ziwica will be in conversation with Michelle Ryan on her new book Leaning Out, which maps a decade of stasis on the gender equality front in Australia, and why the pandemic has led to a breakthrough. As the historic 2021 Women's March attests, a generation of younger women are speaking truth to power and changing the way we think of women in the workplace. 

For ten years Australian women have been sold a dazzling promise: through sheer 'will' and individual self-empowerment they could overcome decades of gender inequality in the workplace. The hard, structural work didn't need to be done; all the solutions could be individual. Yet leaning in, power-posing and speaking up (and being spoken over) at the boardroom table have made very little difference for the great majority of women, still underpaid and overworked compared to their male colleagues.

The COVID-19 pandemic has shockingly revealed the fragile foundations of women's working lives. It's also given us a rare opportunity for a reimagining. But Australian women are still being told to 'Lean In' at precisely the moment when so many are tempted to 'leaning out'. With the majority of all jobs lost in the pandemic being held by women, and successive governments unable or unwilling to address the 'gender issue', we are at crisis point. Leaning Out is a manifesto for what we can - and should - do with this moment.

Kristine Ziwica is a Melbourne-based journalist, columnist and consultant who is a regular contributor to Women's Agenda, The Saturday Paper, The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, ABC News and The Guardian. She has 20 years experience as a feminist writer and activist in a career that has taken her from New York to Munich, Berlin, London and now Australia.

Michelle Ryan is the inaugural Director of the Global Institute for Women's Leadership (GIWL) and a Professor of Social and Organisational Psychology at The Australian National 51³Ô¹ÏÍø. Michelle recently held a European Research Council Consolidator Grant examining the way in which women's career choices are shaped and constrained by social and psychological forces

Kim Rubenstein,  Professor in the Faculty of Business Government and Law and Academic Director of the 50/50 by 2030 Foundation at the 51³Ô¹ÏÍø of Canberra, will give the vote of thanks.

This event is in association with Harry Hartog Bookshop. Books will be available for purchase on the evening in the Cultural Centre foyer. Pre-event book signings will be available from 5.30pm, and available again after the event.

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