It is a difficult thing, to sum up our first Women in Super Conference. Featuring 16 incredible speakers, across 5 sessions (2x keynotes and 3x panel discussions), expertly laced together by our CEO Jo Kowalczyk and Chair Robbie Campo, we attempted to weave together each of the threads of inequality that are currently tying our system up into knots, while launching our refreshed policy priorities that attempt to untangle them at a systemic level.

Not wanting to have superficial discussions about the issues, but rather leave attendees with actual solutions and calls to action, we were thrilled to hear so many end the day with actionable tasks to take back to their funds and organisations.

After Women in Super Policy Chair Ailsa Goodwin launched our new policy priorities, Panel 1 provided an overview of the pervasive systemic gender inequality drivers, exploring economic and political structures by asking key figures: Catherine Fox, author and activist; Zoe Daniel, Independent Member for Goldstein; and Padma Raman, Executive Director of the Office for Women for their experiences of gender inequality issues, what they have seen changed over time, and what they think is needed to continue change into the future.

Panel 2 focussed on gendered violence in two parts, first providing an overview by Rasha Abbas, CEO of InTouch; Joanna Fletcher, Executive Director, Family Youth and Children’s Law, at Victoria Legal Aid; and Megan Jones the Assistant Manager at the Australian eSafety Commissioner. Each provided alarming statistics and perspective to different demographics, from migrant and refugee women, to those with a public platform.

This provided valuable context to a further discussion of what can be done by workplaces, employers and the financial services industry. Dr Tessa Boyd-Caine, CEO of ANROWS; Rebecca Glenn, CEO and Founder of the Centre for Women’s Economic Safety; and Christine Cupitt, CEO of the Council for Australian Life Insurers, each explored how the design of products can directly contribute to perpetuating financial abuse.

Read Women's Agenda's write up of Panels #2A & 2B

Dr Niki Vincent then revisited her Intersectionality at Work report, providing clear and concise examples of why a gender lens is important, and how this is an essential step to understanding more and more intersections, with some truly distressing statistics that cannot be denied.

Our final session of the day brought back the ever-important superannuation industry lens to the broader issues discussed throughout the day. Debby Blakey, CEO of HESTA; Nicolette Rubinsztein, Director of UniSuper; Paula Benson, Chief Officer Strategy & Corporate Affairs at AustralianSuper; and Robbie Campo, CEO of ESSSuper (in addition to being our very own Chair), offered a candid discussion as employers, on themes such as women’s work, the gender pay gap and women in leadership.

The buzz in the room was palpable as we broke out into meal breaks, and even more so at the networking drinks sponsored by IQ Group at the end of the day provided the much-needed opportunity to debrief with colleagues and friends, old and new.

We are deeply grateful to the support of our sponsors for this event, IFM Investors (Platinum), Cbus (Gold), and Profusion Group (Silver).