Webinar:
Preventing and responding to sexual harassment in the workplace: a discussion

Sexual harassment in Australian workplaces is widespread and pervasive, where one in three people have experienced sexual harassment at work in the past five years.

Overwhelmingly, the victims of sexual harassment in the workplace are women.

This webinar will explore the gendered and intersectional nature of workplace harassment, and how policies can be developed to create safe and inclusive workplaces.

Drawing on a new AHRC report, ‘Respect@Work: National Inquiry into Sexual Harassment in Australian Workplaces’, this expert panel of researchers, policymakers and advocates will discuss:

• how sexual harassment in the workplace occurs
• prevention strategies inside and outside the workplace to reduce sexual harassment
• available support, advice and advocacy
• how to develop these supports further through a holistic approach.

There will also be a live Q&A.

This webinar is designed for practitioners, advocates and policymakers working across women’s sector organisations including gender equality services, women’s community centres, women’s health services anddomestic violence and sexual assault services. It is part of a series of Australian Human Rights Commission webinars sharing the results of the National Inquiry with different stakeholders – see here for a full list of webinars.

Watch

Presenters

Kate Jenkins
Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Australian Human Rights Commission

Kate Jenkins is Australia’s Sex Discrimination Commissioner and a member of at the Australian Human Rights Commission. Her purpose is to advance gender equality, consistent with the Sex Discrimination Act and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.

Kate recently released Respect@Work: the National Inquiry into sexual harassment in Australian workplaces report, and is currently leading a number of projects including the Commission’s collaborative project on cultural reform with the Australian Defence Force. Kate is also the Co-Convener of the National Male Champions of Change group (established 2015), and the Co-Chair of Play by the Rules, a joint project between human rights agencies and sports commissions to make grass roots sports safe, fair and inclusive.

Patty Kinnersly
CEO, Our Watch

Patty Kinnersly is Chief Executive Officer of Our Watch, a not-for-profit organisation established to drive nationwide change in the structures, norms and practices that lead to violence against women and their children.

Patty has extensive experience in women’s health, community services, education, and governance. She is currently a member of the Carlton Football Club Board of Directors.

Claire Pirrett
Senior Industrial Liaison Officer, Northern Territory Working Women’s Centre

Claire is the Senior Industrial Liaison Officer at the NT Working Women’s Centre, where she has been employed for the last seven years based in their Alice Springs office. She has lived and worked in Central Australia for nearly a decade in the areas of domestic and family violence and industrial relations. Claire is passionate about women’s rights at work and the differing experiences of work for women in the Northern Territory. Claire has a Bachelor of Development Studies and Graduate Diplomas in both law and business.

Claire works part time, has a toddler and is expecting another baby in late July.

Facilitator

Dr Heather Nancarrow
CEO, ANROWS

Dr Heather Nancarrow is the CEO of Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety (ANROWS). For more than 35 years, Heather has worked to address violence against women, including in community services and advocacy, government policy, and research.

Heather is an Adjunct Associate Professor at UNSW and an Adjunct Research Fellow at the Griffith Criminology Institute, Griffith University. Her scholarship is focused on justice responses to violence against women, particularly as they relate to violence in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Heather’s book, Unintended Consequences of Domestic Violence Law: Gendered Aspirations and Racialised Realities was published in 2019 by Palgrave Macmillan.