The staff at Cultural Perspectives Group has ended the week on a high after the first of our Leichhardt Luminaries series. Leichhardt Luminaries is a series of monthly guest speaker events held at our office in Leichhardt for staff to learn and to be inspired, offering precious opportunities for us to listen, question, and learn from some of the most interesting intellectual personalities in Australia about important issues for both our work and minds.
Last night we were incredibly lucky to kick off our Leichhardt Luminaries series with a talk by Dr. Anne Summers on the role of gender in Australian politics and society today.
At the talk, Dr Summers highlighted her recently released ‘Women’s Manifesto’ which outlines the four basic principles for female equality:
1. Financial self-sufficiency
2. Reproductive freedom
3. Freedom from violence
4. The right to participate fully and equally in all areas of public life.
A quick talk through the manifesto prompted a robust discussion around the four principles. This included questions from staff and personal observations of modern feminism, understanding of how feminism has changed over the time, some of the key struggles that women still face today and how to address them and engage with the issues at a personal level.
To read the Women’s Manifesto for yourself (and we recommend that you do!) please visit the following link to download a print version: http://www.annesummers.com.au/speeches/the-womens-manifesto-pdf/
Dr Anne Summers AO is a best-selling author, journalist and thought-leader with a long career in politics, the media, business and the non-government sector in Australia, Europe and the United States. She is author of eight books, including the best seller - Damned Whores and God’s Police, The Misogyny Factor (2013), The Lost Mother: A Story of Art and Love (2009, 2010) and On Luck (2009), etc.