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To recognise International Women’s Day, Barwon Community Legal Service was proud to take part in events across our region that honoured women’s leadership, resilience and cultural identity, all through the lens of this year’s powerful theme: Balancing the Scales.
CEO Bryanna Connell was honoured to speak at the WorkSafe International Women’s Day event, hosted by the Women at WorkSafe Committee and supported by both the WorkSafe CEO and its CFO, who serves as the committee’s Executive Sponsor. With more than 300 people attending, the event brought together people deeply committed to equality, safety and justice.
Alongside proud Wadawurrung woman Corrina Eccles and GP and women’s health advocate Dr Yvonne McCartney, Ms Connell explored what balancing the scales means in practice, especially for women who have never seen those scales sit evenly in their
lifetimes.
Ms Connell outlined the stark reality that First Nations women are imprisoned at more than 20 times the rate of non‑Indigenous women and are disproportionately impacted by violence. In sharing her perspective, Ms Connell highlighted:
“Real justice begins with naming that truth and committing ourselves to the long, generational work of shifting it.”
Drawing on stories from our service, Ms Connell illustrated how legal support can rebalance the scales for women and girls who have been failed by systems meant to protect them.
Last financial year alone, 73% of the clients we assisted were women, which was more than 1,400 women in the Barwon region. More than 1,100 of those clients, almost all women, were experiencing or had previously experienced family violence.
Behind each number is a story. And sometimes, legal help is the turning point that restores agency, safety, and possibility. Whether it was helping Charlotte* reclaim her future, supporting Mara* to obtain her first identity document, or standing beside Sari* as she fought to keep herself and her baby safe, these are stories of justice restoring agency, possibility and hope.
Our lawyer Fatos, who leads our Cultura outreach service, represented BCLS at Cultura’s International Women’s Day celebration, a vibrant event filled with artistic expression, cultural performances, and shared food that showcased the richness of our multicultural community. This celebration also provided an important to raise awareness of our legal assistance among culturally diverse communities.
Together, these events captured the heart of International Women’s Day: naming inequality, lifting women’s voices, celebrating cultural diversity, and working collectively to balance the scales for all women, now and into the future.
*not real names
