Embracing Equity for women is not one size fits all
The theme for this years International Women's Day is "Embrace Equity." We invited Monash Rural Health alumna, Dr Kylie Cocking to reflect on this theme. She has worked extensively in the field of Family and Domestic Violence and is currently working at Annie North Inc. to design and implement a new housing program in partnership with Haven: Home Safe called Annie North Haven: Women’s Housing Service a mid-to-long term housing program for women (and their children) exiting Victorian correctional facilities and services.
What a fantastic theme for this year’s International Women’ Day 2023 #Embrace Equity, it does exactly what it intended to do and that is to start conversations about gender equality and gender equity, how they differ, and why we need both.
It’s been central to the mission of second wave feminism to promote women’s equality by challenging the gendered social barriers that limit women’s rights, freedoms, participation, and opportunities.
In the late 1980s, the US civil rights activist and Critical Race theorist Professor Kimberlé Crenshaw highlighted how different axes of power and oppression, such as colonisation, racism, sexism, and homophobia intersect and disproportionally impact the disadvantage, marginalisation and oppression experienced by particular groups of people, notably women of Colour. Intersectional scholarship has since flourished and its contribution helps us to understand that while gender equality is critical to the promotion of women’s rights more broadly, equality alone will not benefit all women.
Gender equity therefore, acknowledges that different women experience different life circumstances, and so requires resources and opportunities tailored to their particular needs and circumstances. For example, women with disabilities may require services, resources and support tailored to their individual needs in order to participate in employment, to live independently, or to be safe from violence by accessing a women’s refuge that is disability inclusive and accessible.
Similarly, First Nations women seeking housing support may require housing that is culturally accessible and so able to accommodate large family, kinship and community members at any one time. Yet, many of our housing policies are not suited to women’s cultural needs and circumstances, with women allocated small homes and limits on occupants, leading to rental terminations or orders to vacate. Social policies of this kind not only limit women’s access to safe housing, they actively work against efforts to promote greater equality to all women.
On this International Women’s Day, conversations around gender equity work to promote understanding and actions that ensure women are accorded the resources and supports they require to participate fully in society, to exercise their rights and freedoms, and to take advantage of opportunities that should be equally open and accessible to all women. As a beneficiary of feminist activism, I’m grateful to part of this conversation, and that I get to play an active role in agitating for change and working to promote gender equality and equity for all women in the work that we do at Annie North.
Kylie Cocking PhD., is a graduate of the School of Rural Health, Monash University. Kylie’s doctoral thesis entitled, “Who’s watching the kids? Making Children and Young People Explicit in Integrated Systems Approaches to Family and Domestic Violence”, examined the frontline system practices that support the safety and well-being of children and young people living with family violence.
Kylie has previously worked with State/Territory family violence crisis services, and is now employed at Annie North Inc., a Secure Women’s Refuge Facility in Bendigo, Victoria. Kylie works with the Family Violence After Hours Response Team providing crisis support to women and their children across the Loddon region. Kylie is also the Project Officer for Annie North overseeing Quality, Systems and Development, including the design and implementation of a new housing program in partnership with Haven: Home Safe called Annie North Haven: Women’s Housing Service a mid-to-long term housing program for women (and their children) exiting Victorian correctional facilities and services.