Social Policy

Women on Boards has a strong social agenda in addition to its primary goal of improving women's participation on boards and in other leadership roles.

The primary means through which WOB supports the board range of social policies affecting women is through a significant financial contribution to the National Foundation for Australian Women, an independent not-for-profit women's organisation, which was the incubator for Women on Boards.

WOB contributes five percent of all revenues to NFAW to enable it to continue its successful lobbying and contribution to social policy areas, including:

  • Sex discrimination
  • Equal pay
  • Paid maternity leave
  • WorkChoices & Welfare to work
  • Health Issues
  • Henry review of future taxation arrangements

Through the work of its Social Policy Committee NFAW has played an influential role in 2004 and 2005 in the public policy debates about abortion and the approval process for RU486 and as well about changes to the industrial relations system and welfare support for people of working age.

The abortion and RU486 debates involved collaboration with the Public Health Association of Australia, and the Australian Reproductive Health Alliance.

The debates about the Government’s Welfare to Work and WorkChoices policies were conducted through a consortium of 64 national women’s organisations, arranged through the Commonwealth funded national secretariats.

In 2004 the NFAW Board of Directors approved the establishment of a Social Policy Sub-committee of the Board, and this committee, based in Canberra with corresponding members interstate, welcomes expressions of interest in joining us from potential new members.

The current work program is focussed on paid maternity leave and equal pay.  This program arose from the consultations that were undertaken on WorkChoices and women.

Website: http://www.nfaw.org/