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Every year, the international campaign known as 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence calls for action against one of the world’s most persistent violations of human rights – violence against women.
#16Days is held from 25 November (International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women) to 10 December (International Human Rights Day).
This year, Working Women’s Centre SA are highlighting ways that you can help raise awareness and involvement in action to end gendered-based violence in its many forms.
16 actions you can take during #16Days and throughout the year:
We know it can be overwhelming to witness and act against the levels of violence in our world – however your actions do help make a difference.
To help you with where to begin, we’ve also shared below some more information about 16 different aspects of gender-based violence, and the organisations and campaigns that are responding and making change. Join, speak up, donate and be active!
1/ Understanding and Changing Violence Against Women in Australia
Gender-based violence is a national emergency in Australia, and women are calling for action.
The South Australian Government is currently undertaking a Royal Commission into Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence. As part of the process, they are seeking submissions from the public – these are due by 5pm Tuesday 10 December 2024.
Alongside government, community, family and workplace action, organisations like Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety conduct feminist research to help us to understand violence against women, and national advocacy agencies like Our Watch work to embed change.
2/ Working for Truth, Treaty, Justice
The Working Women’s Centre SA supports truth-telling and treaty-making, for our nation to truly come to terms with the ongoing violence of colonialism. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women are important leaders in feminist and workers movements, and solidarity with First Nations Peoples’ calls for reparation and justice can be shown in many ways.
Non-Indigenous feminists can follow platforms like Indigenous-X and their Anthology, listen to First Nations feminist voices, and support Aboriginal community -controlled activism.
3/ Supporting Peace and Internationalism- End the Genocide in Palestine
War, settler colonialism and militarism go hand in hand with gender-based violence. Women and children are targeted in conflicts and crises, and wars significantly increase rates of sexual and gender-based violence. The United Nations has reported that 70% of people killed in Palestine in the last year have been women and children.
Feminists work for justice and peace! Find out more through the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom and Australian Friends of Palestine Association.
4/ Acting for Climate Justice
The climate change emergency disproportionately impacts on women and children, and subjects many people to food insecurity, displacement and disaster. Elevating women’s rights will always positively impact on better climate action, adaptation and justice.
Find out more about feminist action for climate justice globally. In Australia, support activist organisations like Seed Mob.
5/ Defending Our Abortion Rights
From Trump’s America to attempts to restrict abortion in various states of Australia, abortion rights are back on the political agenda and reproductive rights are under attack. No one is free from violence if they can’t control their own bodily autonomy.
“Why we [heart] abortion and use the phrase pro-abortion” is a great piece from Texas. Here in SA join, donate and get active with the South Australian Abortion Action Coalition.
6/ Supporting Women in Prisons
Intergenerational violence and poverty contribute to the criminalisation and incarceration of women and girls. Gender-based violence can be a pathway to incarceration, and racism and trauma means that First Nations women are over-represented in jails.
Justice Action represents people locked in Australian prisons and hospitals, defending human rights in the hardest places. Seeds of Affinity – Pathways for Women (Seeds) is a South Australian organisation that is run by and for women with lived prison experience.
Sisters Inside and other organisations like them are a voice for and by incarcerated women.
7/ Supporting Trans Rights
Violence and discrimination against trans and gender diverse people is increasing around the world. Everyone is responsible for making sure people are safe to live their own lives and are supported in their bodily and healthcare choices.
Trans Equality is a movement of trans and gender diverse people, allies and organisations, working for trans rights, advocacy and connections in Australia. Minus18 works to champion and celebrate LGBTQIA+ young people.
8/ Supporting Disability Rights
Women, girls, and gender diverse people living with disability experience high levels of violence and abuse in their homes, health and care settings, workplaces, and in the community. They are demanding justice and rights, not paternalism.
Women With Disabilities Australia works to promote human rights and end all systemic discrimination and violence based on gender and disability.
9/ Supporting the Rights of Sex Workers
Sex workers are workers, deserving of safety and workplace rights as much as any other worker. The criminalisation and stigmatisation of sex workers can have devastating effects on their safety, housing, health and wellbeing. Supporting the rights and decriminalisation of sex workers is a feminist issue.
Scarlet Alliance, Australian Sex Workers Association, and in South Australia, the Sex Industry Network undertake self-determined activism to advance the rights, respect for and health of sex workers.
10/ Supporting Refugee Rights
The human rights and freedom of refugees and migrants are one of the biggest issues facing humanity, worsening with climate crisis and war. Refugees and asylum seekers have spoken up about how Australia has of some of the most cruel and violent policies targeting them in the world, and are leading the movement for positive change.
Like many issues, the best work for change is grounded in the principle of “Nothing About Us, Without Us”. Support self-determined activism and mutual aid by donating to RISE: Refugees, Survivors and ex-Detainees.
11/ Anti- Poverty Action
The gender wage and superannuation gap, unpaid caring labour, taxation and social security policies all contribute to women’s experiences of poverty in Australia. Family, domestic and sexual violence, and poverty, are often closely interconnected.
Check out the Raise the Rate campaign and support the work of the Anti-Poverty Network SA, a voice for South Australians on low incomes.
12/ Responding to Modern Slavery and Labour Trafficking
Modern slavery and labour trafficking is a global epidemic affecting industries such as textiles and fashion, agriculture and food services, domestic services, technology and construction. Over 70% of people forced into labour are women or girls.
Responses need to be led by rights-based, pro-union and sex worker inclusionary feminism such as the Global Alliance Against Trafficking in Women. In Australia, organisations like Action Aid are campaigning for economic justice for women workers around the world.
13/ Elevating the Rights of Children and Girls
One in three girls can expect to be the target of some form of gender-based violence during their lifetime. Children are affected by global challenges such education, health, bodily rights, and disaster relief.
The Global Fund for Women believes that children’s rights must be addressed, and that girls, young women and non-binary youth must be included in the fight for gender justice. Plan International’s 2023 State of the World’s Girls report focused on girls’ and young women’s activism.
14/ Being Union Proud!
The union movement continues its proud tradition of fighting for women’s rights, from equal pay to paid Family and Domestic Violence Leave. Unions are playing an important role in combatting workplace sexual harassment.
Join your union, celebrate women in unions and keep up the fight!
15/ Combatting Sexual Harassment in the Workplace
One in three people have been sexually harassed at work. Following its groundbreaking inquiry, report and recommendations, Respect@Work offer a comprehensive set of resources to understand, prevent and address workplace sexual harassment, including new Positive Duty laws that require employers and businesses to actively eliminate sexual discrimination and harassment.
However, the silencing effects of Non-Disclosure Agreements are still discouraging reporting and action. This needs to change. Working Women’s Centres around the nation are working to change the misuse and overuse of NDAs. Stay in touch with us to be part of this campaign and remember we also offer workplace training on sexual harassment and family and domestic Violence.
16/ Advancing Human Rights Laws in Australia and South Australia
A Human Rights Act, nationally and in South Australia, would help prevent discrimination and injustice, and promote rights, dignity and democracy. The South Australian Parliament is currently in the committee stage of considering human rights legislation.
Human Rights Acts or Charters would empower women and others to act when their rights are violated. The Working Women’s Centre SA supports the campaign for an Australian Human Rights Act.
The Working Women’s Centre SA attended the Small Steps, Safe Workplaces – Sexual Harassment Conference on 14–15 November in Hobart, Tasmania.
Hosted by Women’s Legal Service Tasmania, the event brought together experts from across Australia to foster collaboration on strategies for safer, sexual harassment-free workplaces.
Keynote speakers included Dr Anna Cody (Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner), Ms Kate Eastman AM SC, and the Hon Justice Turnbull. Over the two-day event, discussions covered trauma-informed responses, workplace cultural safety, sexual harassment law updates, support for victim-survivors, and safety for sex workers.
Abbey Kendall, CEO of Working Women’s Centre Australia, shared updates on the national rollout of Working Women’s Centres, while Sharmilla Bargon and Regina Featherstone presented the Let’s Talk About Confidentiality report, focusing on research related to Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs).
The conference provided a valuable platform to connect with lawyers, community sector representatives, and organisations, highlighting the importance of collaboration in creating safer workplaces.
Highlighting a year of growth and ongoing support for women facing workplace disadvantage, the 2023/24 Annual Report has been published by the Working Women’s Centre South Australia (WWC SA).
The report outlines the Centre’s expanded services, including legal support, advocacy, and educational programs aimed at improving the economic welfare and workplace rights of vulnerable women.
WWC SA’s legal team had a busy year, representing over 1,400 individual clients and providing more than 2,600 instances of legal advice. The team focused on issues such as sexual harassment, discrimination, wage theft, and unfair dismissals, successfully recovering nearly $1 million in compensation for clients.
We have provided advice to 570 workers regarding sexual harassment and discrimination and have opened 136 cases specifically related to these issues. — Emma Johnson, Principal Lawyer
This year we recovered a total of $986,978.40 for our clients. This amount includes unpaid wages, general damages for sexual harassment and discrimination complaints, and compensation for clients who were unfairly dismissed or terminated from their workplace.
Education and Training Initiatives
The Centre’s education and training programs reached over 500 participants this year, with a focus on preventing sexual harassment and addressing domestic and family violence in the workplace. A recent review of the training programs provided valuable insights, ensuring that the Centre’s educational offerings remain relevant and impactful.
Campaigning for Workers’ Rights and Legal Protections
WWC SA continues to advocate for legislative reforms that protect workers’ rights. This year, the Centre actively supported the successful passage of the Australian Human Rights Commission Amendment (Costs Protection) Bill, which provides greater protections for workers pursuing sexual harassment and discrimination claims. The Bill passed and became law in September 2024.
In addition to this legislative success, WWC SA has also celebrated a number of other key milestones throughout the year. These include securing additional funding from the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, enabling the Centre to expand its advocacy, training, and education teams.
Another major achievement was the establishment of a national peak body, WWC Australia, based in Adelaide, which broadens support for working women across the country.
On 1 December 2023 the Working Women’s Centre SA hosted an event at Tadouni College in Port Adelaide on domestic servitude with keynote speakers Associate Professor Natalie Harkin and Elisabeth Lino de Araujo.
The event was attended by Kaurna, Ngarrindjeri, and Narungga Elders and activists, government officials, representatives of Aboriginal health, academics, union officials, APHEDA members, the Hon. Mira El Dannawi MLC, the Hon Steph Key, the Hon. Tammy Franks MCL and the Commissioner for Equal Opportunity, Jodeen Carney.
We received apologies from the Hon. Kyam Maher, Attorney General, the first Aboriginal Attorney-General in South Australia, as well as Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Minister for Industrial Relations and the Public Sector. We also received apologies from the Hon. Katrine Hildyard MP, Minister for Women and the Hon. Natalie Cook MP, Minister for Human Services.
Associate Professor Natalie Harkin and Elisabeth Lino de Araujo shared their expertise, research and poetry on domestic servitude and advocacy of marginalised women. This event was an excellent demonstration of solidarity between Aboriginal and Timor Leste women as it presented the similarities between historical domestic servitude within our State, which makes up an under spoken element of Australia’s history, and domestic servitude that occurring in other parts of the world today, such as in Timor-Leste.
Associate Professor Natalie Harkin
Elisabeth Lino de Araujo is the founder of the Working Women’s Centre Timor-Leste (WWCTL) in Dili, Timor-Leste. From 2007 Elisabeth has worked as the Country Manager of Union Aid Abroad – APHEDA Timor Leste. Elizabeth presented on the incredible work that the WWCTL does, with a focus on advocacy for domestic and vulnerable female workers both in reaction to exploitation but in prevention. The Labour Code of Timor Leste was ratified by the Timorese Government in 2010, and the WWCTL has an outreach training workshop where they educate women on their rights at work in accordance with this legislation. We also heard Elisabeth present on another example of the fantastic advocacy of the WWCTL, on the proposed Special Law for Domestic Workers Bill in Timor Leste, which was drafted in 2017, and is awaiting promulgation. It was inspiring to hear about the WWCTL’s steadfast contribution to the formation of this Bill.
Associate Professor Natalie Harkin is a Narungga poet and Research Fellow at Flinders University living on Kaurna Yerta, South Australia. She engages archival-poetic methods to document community Memory Stories and is a member of SA’s inaugural State Records/State Library Aboriginal Reference Group. Her research centres on Aboriginal women’s domestic service and labour histories, and Indigenous Living-Legacy / Memory Story archiving innovations for our time.
Associate Professor Harkin presented on her research on historical domestic servitude of Aboriginal women and resulting stolen wages, of which the government in South Australia is yet to address. Further, she discussed the barriers in place for Aboriginal people to access their records through the State Archive today. An important underpinning theme of her work is the importance of the decolonisation of our state archives.
Leadlight artist and Narungga woman Sharene Vandenbroak kindly allowed the Working Women’s Centre SA to display her stain glass artwork at this event. Her artwork entitled ‘See Her Shining in the Sun’ was featured in the larger exhibition ‘APRON-SORROW / SOVEREIGN -TEA’ in 2021. Sharene’s set of gorgeous handmade stain glass windows depicting her strong female family members performing domestic labour received much praise and enhanced the story telling atmosphere of this event.
(Left to right) Associate Professor Natalie Harkin, Sharene Vandenbroak, Elisabeth Lino de Araujo, Anne-Marie Hayes, Nikki Candy, Abbey Kendall
Stolen Wages Work
The Working Women’s Centre SA organised this event as a result of meeting with multiple Aboriginal women and hearing their stories of work from the late 1950’s to late 1960’s. In acknowledgement of South Australia’s under recognised history of exploitation of Aboriginal workers, the WWC has been assisting several Aboriginal women to gain access to their records held in archives by the state government.
The racially motivated policies that existed in South Australia up until the 1970’s facilitated control and exploitation of Aboriginal workers. Resultingly, it was common for Aboriginal workers to not be paid, or to be paid small, intermittent amounts of money for the work they performed. The types of work that were common for Aboriginal workers to perform historically were domestic and pastoral work. The WWC is funded to provide legal advice to women and vulnerable workers, and in line with our funding, domestic servitude is feminised work. In a recent submission from the WWC to the state government on the proposal for South Australia to form a Human Rights Act, the WWC submitted to the inquiry that Aboriginal people should have the right to have timely access to records that relate to them. A copy of the WWC’s submission can be found here.
The WWC has been working with Associate Professor Natalie Harkin in advocating for archive accessibility and assisting Aboriginal women to request their own government records relating to their historical employment. This is often a lengthy process with multiple bureaucratic obstacles, which creates further barriers for Aboriginal people to access their own records relating to themselves and their families.
The WWC strongly supports and endorses the decolonisation of state records. Ensuring that Aboriginal people have timely and effortless access to their own records is an essential and crucial step towards truth telling and reconciliation of South Australia’s history of exploiting Aboriginal workers.
Other states and territories in Australia such as QLD, NT, NSW, WA and the NT have addressed historical stolen wages that occurred within their jurisdictions. South Australia is yet to address this issue.
The Working Women’s Centre SA would like to thank all who attended this highly successful event, and to further send a special thanks to both Elizabeth and Associate Professor Natalie Harkin for sharing their expertise. We look forward to continuing this collaboration and advocacy on these important issues with both Elizabeth and Associate Professor Natalie in the future.
The 16 June marks International Day of the Domestic Worker. You can read about Domestic Workers, here. We look forward to platforming domestic workers and both their historic and current rights in the coming year.
In a show of support and solidarity, the Working Women’s Centre attended the Bread and Roses / Bret Mo Roses album launch, spotlighting the courageous battle of a group of 12 migrant women, members of the United Workers Union, who are fighting back after surviving sexual violence in the glasshouses of Perfection Fresh company.
These women, known as the Perfection 12, have bravely taken their fight to the Federal Court of Australia, seeking accountability and systemic change at Perfection Fresh, a major supplier to Coles and Woolworths, for failing to provide a safe workplace for its employees, particularly women who endure sexual harassment and assault within its glasshouses.
The Bread and Roses album, featuring the voices and stories of the 12 migrant women union members, marks a significant moment in the ongoing struggle, particularly highlighting the sacrifices that seasonal workers make for their families and their isolation from their communities for years, as well as their pursuit for justice and safety in the workplace. The title track, Bread and Roses (Bret Mo Roses) is an old union song that has been adapted by the women to reflect their own fight for respect.
During her speech at the Semaphore Workers Club event, Caterina Cinanni, executive director of the United Workers Union, emphasised the urgency of their fight for change. “The Perfection 12 are brave women fighting for justice, respect, and safety not just for themselves, but for every single woman working in that glasshouse. Perfection Fresh is the wealthiest and largest tomato glasshouse corporation in Australia.”
Abbey Kendall, director of Working Women’s Centre, underscored the importance of safe workplaces for all workers “Seasonal work must be safe, regardless of their background, identity, or job type. That is the benchmark of Australian workplace laws,” she added.
As the Perfection 12 continue their legal battle, supporters can amplify their message by spreading awareness and advocating for accountability from companies like Perfection Fresh. The Bread and Roses album serves as a testament to their resilience and determination, inspiring solidarity, and action among all who seek justice in the workplace.
For more information on how to support the Perfection 12 and their campaign, visit Bread and Roses – Full Album – Rotten Perfection
Abbey Kendall, the Director of the Working Women’s Centre SA, and Caitlin Feehan, lawyer with the Centre, travelled to Canberra on Wednesday (31) to represent the organisation at the Senate Inquiry held at Parliament House. Their purpose was to provide evidence concerning the Australian Human Rights Commission Amendment (Costs Protection) Bill 2023.
The passage of this bill would eliminate the financial risk for women who have experienced sexual harassment and/or discrimination of having to pay the legal costs of their employer when pursuing their claims in the Federal Court. The current financial risk with taking these types of matters to Court is a known deterrent for women when considering whether to pursue their matters past unsuccessful conciliation. By this Bill being passed, it would provide certainty for women to pursue their matters without risking their long-term economic security.
Great work to all the organisations that attended the Senate Inquiry yesterday in support of this important proposed law reform!
