Women in Leadership Refresh: Supporting women’s empowerment in Chengdu
29 November 2020
The Australian Consulate-General in Chengdu is a strong advocate of Women in Leadership in our engagement with our partners in southwest China and how we manage ourselves as an organisation. By holding open discussions both within and outside the Consulate-General, we seek to understand the issues faced by women in our consular jurisdiction. We have always found the events that we participate in to be exceedingly inspiring and empowering which encourages us to do more to support women around us.
The rights of women and girls in Australian Government policy
Empowering women is an important foreign policy of Australia. It’s not only about justice and equality, but also the key to promoting economic development and building a more dynamic and inclusive society. There are many outstanding women in Australia’s diplomatic institutions: our Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister for Women, Senator the Hon Marise Payne, and the Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs, Frances Adamson are women; and currently, 44 per cent of the heads of Australian missions overseas are women.
The Secretary of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Frances Adamson, then Australian Ambassador to China, joined the consulate to celebrate International Women’s Day in March 2015. Credit: DFAT
In addition, the Australian Government has established the Ambassador for Gender Equality, Julie-Ann Guivarra, as well as the Ambassador for Women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), Professor Lisa Harvey-Smith, to promote gender equality and increase the visibility of outstanding female role models.
A high profile way for our Consulate to take forward this objective is to hold public events to highlight the role of women. While we couldn’t hold International Women’s Day in March this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, we made it up with a number of online campaigns and offline events throughout the year.
Women in Healthcare
The contribution women around the world have made in response to the COVID-19 pandemic is immense. Not only do women make up 70 per cent of health care workers related to COVID-19 care worldwide, they also play pivotal leadership roles including heading up research institutes, leading vaccine research and development, and directing public health responses.
We highlighted the various Australian women in leadership roles in the fight against COVID-19, for instance
- Professor Sharon Lewin AO, Director, Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity
- Jane Hilton AO PSM, Chair of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI)
- Professor Raina Macintyre, Head of Biosecurity, Kirby Institute, UNSW
- Dr Kylie Wagstaff, Senior Research Fellow, Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute
- Professor Katherine Kedzierska, Laboratory Head, Doherty Institute
- Dr Kerry Chant, Chief Health Officer, NSW
- Dr Jeannette Young PSM, Chief Health Officer, Queensland
- Dr Kerryn Coleman, Chief Health Officer, ACT
- Professor Nicola Spurrier, Chief Health Officer, South Australia
- Professor Catherine Bennett, Chair in Epidemiology, Institute for Health Transformation, Deakin University
- Associate Professor Kamalini Lokuge, Senior Fellow, Research School of Population Health, Australian National University
- Professor Mary-Louise McLaws, Deputy President Academic Board, UNSW, and member of the WHO Health Emergencies Program Experts Advisory Panel
Print screen of official WeChat post article on Women in Epidemiology. Credit: DFAT
To give greater prominence to the role of women in health and science in Chengdu, the Consulate hosted an event on 15 October, which brought together women who have studied in Australia or worked with Australian institutions in the medical sector. Our Women in Healthcare event heard stories of outstanding Chinese women who made it their vocation to improve the health of their fellow human beings. What is inspiring is not only their direct contribution to the health and well-being of many, but also how their work contributed to the understanding and cooperation between Australia and China.
We heard from Chief Physician and Professor Li Xiaolu at the Sichuan Academy of Chinese Medicine who studied at the University of Sydney Hospital; Dr Dai Nan, a psychiatrist from the First Hospital Affiliated to the Kunming Medical University who studied at the University of Western Australia; Chelsea Ren, the CEO of Icon China, who is overseeing the expansion of the Australian oncology centre Icon Group in China; and Dr Fan Fan, the Executive Vice General Manager of Olymvax, a Chengdu biopharmaceutical company which is partnering with Griffith University’s Institute of Glycomics to manufacture a vaccine for streptococcus infections.
The Consulate’s Women in Healthcare event brought together inspiring women in the sector who have strong links to Australia and are committed to lifting the standards of health care in southwest China. Credit: DFAT
She Inspires Me book launch
Last year, the Consulate launched a photo competition titled She Inspires Me to give an opportunity to budding photographers to capture images of women in their lives who have inspired them. Entrants also needed to write briefly why they were inspired by the women they photographed. More than 3,000 photographers from Australia and China submitted photos and stories of women in a range of situations – receiving accolades, attaining their personal ambitions, providing care to the needy, or simply doing their everyday work with joy and pride.
The two winning entries of the She Inspires Me photo competition. Credit: DFAT
We exhibited the best entries at the Festival of Australia in Kunming, and awarded the two winners of the competition – one from China and the other from Australia – international air tickets to the other country. The winning entry from China was a photo of a female doctor putting on a face mask before she attended to her patients. Little did we know that this picture from 2019 would be a ubiquitous feature of our lives this year. The Australian winning entry was one of a photographer’s sister, who guided and inspired her to be the best she could be – a fitting tribute to the bonds of sisterhood.
A trailblazer in Australian diplomacy was Glenda Gauci. She was the first Asian Australian woman appointed as an ambassador of Australia. She inspired and paved the way for many. Credit: DFAT
This year, we compiled the award-winning pieces into a book and launched it at the Women in Healthcare event. Taken as a whole, the photos speak of women’s resilience, dedication, achievement, empathy, wisdom and strength, notwithstanding their different cultural backgrounds coming from China or Australia.
Women in Tech Alumni forum
To raise awareness about issues that can hold back girls and women from being involved in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, the Consulate worked with local partners to hold the Women in Tech Alumni forum in August.
On 22 August, the Australian Consulate General in Chengdu collaborated with Austrade, AustCham West China, Chengdu Startup, SheLeads, Ladies Who Tech, and WeWork to hear the experiences of professional women in the male-dominated technology industry. Credit: DFAT
We invited prominent women in the technology sector in Chengdu, Australian alumni and advocates of women’s leadership to share their success stories in the industry, insights into technological trends, and discuss how women seize opportunities in a male-dominated science and technology industry. They also discussed how men can better become women's allies, who would jointly advocate corporate diversity and inclusiveness, and actively promote women in leadership.
Mayda Lim, Head of Technology for ANZ Technology Campus China, and board member of ANZ Global Services and Operations (Chengdu), delivered a keynote speech "A Tale of Two Journeys" on female leadership in the technology industry. We heard that flexible, resilient women with courage and conviction are becoming the leaders in the fast-changing technology industry and are driving change and inspiring others around us.
Allying with SheLeads
SheLeads brought together emerging female leaders and their supporters to further the cause of women’s empowerment in Chengdu and southwest region. Credit: SheLeads
The Australian Consulate-General has joined forces with a Chengdu professional women’s group SheLeads since its inception in 2018 to support local efforts to address gender inequality. The Consulate provided mentors, shared experience and best practice, and contributed a range of in-kind support to SheLeads’ efforts in empowering local women. We are pleased the SheLeads network and mission is expanding into other cities in southwest China.
One of my roles has been to encourage the participation and support from male allies, and for this, I had the honour of being recognised as SheLeads’ Ally of the Year 2020. Credit: DFAT
To fully realise the potential of women as leaders much work remains. However, there is positive and continuous movement in the right direction in both Australia and China. By working together, we can promote women’s leadership in all fields, and unlock everyone’s potential.
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