This year our theme for the Federal Women's Conference was “Women's Work: Women's Lives”. We sought to develop four campaigns for women in the AEU.

The Workshops developed campaigns which will be able to be enacted by Branches/Associated Bodies.

The Workshops were led by women both from our union and women from other unions and organizations.

The four Workshops topics were:

1. Women and Activism, Liberty Sanger (President, YWCA [Victoria])
2. Women and the Profession, Claire Thompson (AEU SA Industrial Officer)
3. Women and Human Rights. Susan Hopgood (Deputy Federal Secretary, AEU)
4. Women, Work and Life, Lisa Heap (Federal Industrial Officer, ASU)

Our Keynote Address was given by Carla Lipsig-Mumme from the Australian Research Centre on Work and Society, Deakin University. Click here for her biography.

Our other guest speakers included:

Michelle Bissett (Industrial Officer ACTU) who gave a report on the ACTU Fifty Families Report. Click here to read her speech.

The Panel was lead by women from other unions, including:

1. Max Adlam (National Industrial Officer) - Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union.
2. Carolyn Allport (President) - National Tertiary Education Union.
3. Erin Wood (Director Professional Services) - Association of Professional Engineers, Scientists and Managers Australia.
4. Cath Bowtell (Industrial Officer ) - Australian Council of Trade Unions.

They talked about their experiences of unions, women in unions and campaigns for women.

We heard ideas that worked and those which did not. We heard about strategies used and their effectiveness and from this we developed our campaigns.

Delegates were asked to engage in individual workshops focussed on key issues for the future of women in our union, within public education systems and within society generally.