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Exploring gender equality four decades since the CEDAW signing

ACU’s Faculty of Theology and Philosophy (FTP) recently hosted an online seminar examining Australia’s progress on women’s equality since the ratification of the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1983.

Chaired by Dr Rapin Quinn, Honorary Fellow in the Faculty of Theology and Philosophy at ACU Canberra Campus, the seminar speakers included Australian National University Professor Elizabeth Reid, who in 1973 became the country’s first Women’s Adviser to former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam, and former Senator and current Member of the UN CEDAW Committee, Natasha Stott Despoja AO.

Professor Reid and Ms Stott Despoja mapped the Convention’s evolution—from the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights to CEDAW’s adoption in 1979—and assessed Australia’s progress and persistent gaps.

The event drew a wide audience of students, academics and community advocates keen to probe the treaty’s impact more than four decades after Australia’s ratification.

In her presentation, Professor Reid traced the UN’s long fight for women’s legal recognition and explained how CEDAW re-defined equality by demanding change in public, private and domestic spheres.

Ms Stott Despoja offered insider reflections on the treaty-monitoring process, saying that “consensus and consent are powerful tools when States choose to use them.”

She also urged for greater regional engagement with CEDAW reporting.

“The CEDAW remains a living instrument whose promise is realised only through sustained vigilance and advocacy,” Ms Stott Despoja emphasised.

“The seminar challenged us to consider how self-monitoring, civil-society scrutiny and political will must converge to secure genuine gender equality,” Professor Reid added.

Dr Quinn noted that the interactive Q&A highlighted practical strategies for strengthening compliance and underscored the seminar’s central message.

Faculty of Theology and Philosophy Executive Dean Professor Richard Colledge said the seminar series was part of ACU’s commitment to fostering informed dialogue around issues like gender equality.

“We are honoured to host distinguished speakers who can provide context and insight into the most important challenges facing the world today,” Professor Colledge said.

“At the heart of our mission as a university is a commitment to uphold the inherent worth of every individual and advocate for a more just society.”