Gender Equality Initiatives
Our Commitment to Gender Equality
Preventing violence against women is everyone's responsibility, including all of us at Central Goldfields Shire Council - from elected representatives and senior management to all Council employees.
As representatives and providers of key services and facilities, it is our duty to lead by example and to take up a crucial role in preventing violence against women in our community.
Victorian Local Government Women's Charter
Central Goldfields Shire Council is a signatory of the Victorian Local Government Women’s Charter(PDF, 270KB), committing our organisation to the following principles:
Gender Equity
That women and men have an equal right to be representatives in local governments, committees and decision-making positions.
Diversity
The inclusion of different experiences and perspectives in local governments and community decision-making strengthens local democratic governance and helps build cohesive communities. Councils and communities encourage and welcome the participation of all women.
Active Citizenship
Local governments will work with the community to increase the numbers and participation of women in public life, so that decision-making more clearly represents and reflects the interests and demographies of communities.
Gender Equity in the Workplace
In June 2018, the Municipal Association of Victoria announced the Free from Violence local government grants where we were successful for our Changing our Story project.
We were able to employ a resource to lead our Changing our Story project which was focused around communications and empowering young people in the primary prevention of violence against women project.
As part of the project workshops were facilitated and a staff survey was conducted – both at the start of the project and at the end – to ascertain the level of change we had achieved internally.
Staff from across the organisation also participated in Workplace Equality and Respect and Workforce Inclusion training and we also had staff attend the Workforce Inclusion and Diversity Forum.
Further to this we updated our policies and procedures and we partnered and networked with local schools and organisations.
In October 2019 we led the 16 Days of Activism program of events in partnership with the community.
It was a great success it was and we can all be proud of the collaboration and the positive community outcomes that this program of events delivered for our community.
In February 2020 we finalised our Gender Equity Statement which was a culmination of a series of internal workshops with staff and we also drew on the voices of our local young people. The Statement reads as follows and you can also download it here(PDF, 972KB) .
We will create an inclusive workplace where all people are respected and have equal access to opportunities. We are dedicated to changing the behaviours and attitudes that contribute to gender inequity and gender-based violence.
We will lead by example, and support our community in their efforts to ensure people are respected and safe to participate in all aspects of community life.
Our Gender Equity Statement is the start of something much bigger for our organisation with the next stage for us to develop our Gender Equity Strategy. The strategy will provide our organisation with practical goals for this work moving forward. It will hold us accountable for our progress and it will go beyond gender equality to consider other elements of inclusion, diversity and intersectionality. We also have a group of staff members ‘Gender Equity Champions’ who will drive this work forward.
For more information about gender equality, visit: