Welcome to WOW Digital
WOW Digital is our portal to the gender equality movement in Australia and around the world through the global WOW network. Here we gather editorials, conversations, recordings and resources for you to enjoy, to challenge the status quo, to encourage deep reflection and to be inspired and energised by the stories you choose. Browse by category or tag and see what inspiration you can draw from today. Or simply choose some retail therapy and support a wide range of women led businesses we have come across in our work!
Conversations
At the heart of WOW festivals are the conversations we need to have, led by people who have created change in their lives and in their communities, exploring many of the issues of importance to women and girls today. Every month you will find a new conversation from our archive of recordings of our live in person events.
Commentary
We are regularly commissioning thought leaders to share their expert knowledge on current and topical issues and events, including extracts from up coming publications and reflections from our many WOW guest speakers and panellists.
WOW Bites
WOW Bites are short talks, readings and soapbox moments on a wide range of subjects designed to inspire, engage and introduce new ideas, commissioned from women and girls who don’t usually get the chance to tell their story to a broader audience.
Performances
Enjoy these vibrant performances of dance, music, poetry, comedy, fashion and much more commissioned for digital presentation or recorded at one of our live in person events.
Workshops
If you want to learn new skills, get creative, or gain knowledge, join in one of our many workshop sessions which will cover topics such as financial management, how to survive the on-line world, building your business, re-cycling your clothing, skateboarding, dancing and learning to weave!
Marketplace
Check out the amazing range of wares made by these independent artists, social enterprises, regional businesses, community organisations and women-led companies.
Or jump straight in to explore content by tag.
The excitement for this first FIFA Women’s World Cup in Australia and New Zealand has been accompanied by frustration expressed about the pace of change toward gender equality in sport. Major sport events, such as the FIFA Women’s World Cup, the Olympic and Paralympic Games shine an important spotlight on the problematic values that continue to marginalise women’s voices in the governance and representation of sport.
It is four years since I participated in a WOW Festival in London, missing out in 2019 due to an accident and then of course the last three years of COVID cancellations and travel restrictions. So it was extra special this year to be able to travel to the UK with WOW Australia Senior Producer Jo Pratt and in partnership with the WOW Foundation, to support the participation of our Co Patron Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner June Oscar AO in this year’s WOW London at the Royal Festival Hall.
The inability to tackle some of the wicked problems of the day (ongoing gender injustice included) is often a cultural issue. The way we think about issues, the way we’ve always done things as a community, results in particular approaches to problem solving. If we want real social change, we have to start with cultural change – and what better tool for that than the creative outpourings of culture itself?
When it feels as if the world around you is collapsing, there are few quicker, more spiritually nourishing, ways to reset than by listening to your favourite music artist, or watching a spoken word poet really tackle the world head on.
On Friday 2nd September we were delighted to welcome our esteemed guests, the Hon. Quentin Bryce and the Hon. Julia Gillard for our twice postponed and much anticipated conversation Once Upon a Time in Australia! It was a delight and privilege to hear the stories and reminiscences of these two leaders who have broken new ground for so many women in Australia.
The Global Institute for Women’s Leadership, or GIWL (pronounced ‘jewel’) was first established at King’s College London by Australia’s first and only female Prime Minister, the Honourable Julia Gillard AC in 2018. In 2020, the Australian National University became the first international base for GIWL, working in partnership with GIWL at King's College London with a focus on the Asia-Pacific region.
Early next morning I read the statement from the dissenting judges, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Justice Stephen Breyer, saying that the court decision means that “young women today will come of age with fewer rights than their mothers and grandmothers. And that from the very moment of fertilization, a woman has no rights to speak of. A state can force her to bring a pregnancy to term even at the steepest personal and familial costs…With sorrow for this Court, but more, for the many millions of American women who have today lost a fundamental constitutional protection - we dissent,” they wrote.
Women in Australia have made significant economic progress since I was a kid, and especially since I began my career in the 1980s. As quite a young girl, I can clearly remember my grandmother saying that children were the only way a woman could be fulfilled. Even as a young girl this idea seemed not right to me.
Flying to Dili the day after hosting a WOW festival in Cairns is not something I would recommend for your body regardless of your age! But as an experience for the mind and soul, the insight I have just had into the history, politics and work of women leaders of our closest neighbour has been second to none.
It was organised and hosted by former first lady Kirsty Sword Gusmão, who many will remember for her own incredible story as told in A Woman of Independence.
On the 27 April June Oscar was one of three women change makers who joined in conversation to discuss Women and Power. In discussion with Julia Banks and Julianne Schultz, and facilitated by Professor Anne Tiernan, the conversation was lively, enlightening and motivating. We are pleased to present June’s opening address here in full.
Women, children, young people and those in insecure work have borne the brunt of COVID-19’s economic effects and its opportunity costs, both now and into the future. Moreover, as women know from lived experience, the pandemic exposed the entrenched and gendered gaps of income, wealth, safety, opportunity and justice that persist despite decades of activism.
WOW Australia is delighted to present the forward from Jackie Huggin’s seminal work Sister Girl: Reflections on Tiddaism, Identity and Reconciliation. A reflection on many important and timely topics, including identity, activism, leadership and reconciliation.
Red Ridge helps create healthy and resilient communities in remote western Queensland by bringing people together in art and cultural activities.
As we return to our busy lives after the holiday break, we’re looking to a very full 2022. Although there are many uncertainties about the coming year, one thing is for sure – the work of creating a gender equal world will need powerful advocates. Here are five changemakers to watch in 2022.
Is it possible for the Queensland Government’s goal to create a more gender-equal community to be reconciled with the state's pursuit of increasing defence industry, especially in relation to defence exports? I think not.
Welcome to WOW Western Queensland - Charleville. Our event was held on the 4-5 of June 2021 on the traditional land of the Bidjara peoples. Across the weekend of activities, more than 600 guests attended and enjoyed a range of performances, conversations, workshops and a makers market.
This short fact sheet draws on text from Equality Australia’s fact sheet on the Religious Discrimination Bill.
Violence against women doesn’t happen in a bubble. No one wakes up one day and decides to murder a woman, rape a woman, abuse a woman, or harass a woman. Men who perpetrate violence against women live, work, and socialise in our violent culture. It’s an uncomfortable truth; one we don’t like to acknowledge, or address.
On 15th March 2021, thousands demonstrated in shared rage and frustration at the diabolical state of gender relations in our nation. March4Justice was a rare moment but how do we turn this moment into momentum? Why is inertia so powerful in this space, what are the forces sustaining inequality, and who or what is going to change them? And why did it take gender inequality striking at the heart of White middle Australia before our institutions sat up and took notice?
The weekend of the 22 & 23 October 2021, saw a gathering of like minds for the inaugural Resilient Women festival on the Scenic Rim. Created from a partnership between the Making Good Alliance and Scenic Rim Regional Council, with support from WOW Australia, forward-thinking women gathered to share stories, listen to invigorating conversations, and partake in a variety of innovative workshops.
This year has been all about Regional Women, and we’re pleased to present these interviews, filmed in Cairns in the wake of our WOW Cairns event postponement.
Hundreds of women from regional, rural and remote townships and properties gathered to listen to inspirational speakers, take part in practical and artistic workshops, join in fun group exercise activities and of course, enjoy the fabulous dress-up evening events.
The theme of 2021 International Day of the Girl Child is "Digital generation. Our generation."
To celebrate International Day of the Girl, we present these four WOW Bites from young Australian leaders of tomorrow.
When we're being introspective about the making of good men, perhaps this famous line could become the basis for our Codes of Conduct. If you have integrity, nothing else matters. And if you don't have integrity...nothing else matters.
There is plenty of data showing the benefits to societies and economies where gender equality is best developed – so what can we possible conclude? That as a society, we literally don’t care? Or that actually, things are comfortable for those in positions of privilege and power as they are, so why change them? Or much more worrying, we are so blind to these inequalities and their effects, we are at a loss to do better.
Meet Del Cole, bus driver, bus company owner, entrepreneur, advocate and charity powerhouse. Five foot tall and invincible, this tiny powerhouse has a remarkable story.
‘The Hope Brigade’ is an exhibition created in celebration of WOW’s tenth anniversary, and in recognition of the 10-year countdown to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Around the world across 10 countries and regions, the exhibition tells a story of global feminism and women’s movements through the stories and voices of inspiring and game-changing women and girls.
In March 2020, all over the world women were forced back into their homes during lockdown. For some, this meant a new confinement to the domestic sphere with little help, along with responsibilities for supervising children’s education, care for aging parents, worries about partners and finances. For others, new anxieties arose from their professional roles as health workers and teachers – on the frontline of caring.
“The Cult of Domesticity was an expression of white middle class aspirations. Angela Davis (in Women, Race and Class) points out that for African women enslaved in nineteenth century America, a domestic life was a distant fantasy: even their child bearing was treated as an economic benefit for owners. “
Leigh Tabrett breaks down the Cult of Domesticity, and explores it’s ongoing relevance for contemporary life.