Women in Focus Webinar Series

Webinar 2: Women’s Economic Security

Despite high levels of education, women in Western Australia continue to face barriers to workforce participation, a highly gendered labour market and widespread undervaluing of care work. This inequity has far reaching impacts, and can lead to entrenched disadvantaged, financial insecurity and poverty.

This webinar provides a space to discuss women’s economic security, including the economic value of feminised work, the gender wage gap, employment structures, new approaches to measuring productivity, and the disproportionate impact increased cost-of-living has on women. During the webinar you will hear from three leading thinking in this space, including:

Melinda Cilento
Melinda is a company director, economist and experienced senior executive. She is currently CEO of the Committee for Economic Development of Australia (CEDA), is a Non-Executive Director of Australian Unity and Co-Chair of Reconciliation Australia. Melinda is also a member of the Parliamentary Budget Office panel of expert advisors.

Associate Professor Astghik Mavisakalyan
Astghik is an Associate Professor of Economics at the Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre at Curtin University. Astghik’s research has focused on employment, education, health, wellbeing and preference formation, seeking to understand the role of the family, institutions, culture and external shocks in these areas.

Professor Alison Preston
Alison is an Australian economist, Winthrop Professor of Economics at the University of Western Australia. She is an expert on wage determination and wages policy, the gender pay gap and segmentation and labour market structures.

Each speaker will provide an overview of their work before joining a panel discussion based on the question: What is the role of the community service sector in supporting women’s economic security and increasing women’s social and economic participation? Workshop attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions and join the discussion.

This webinar will be hosted by Rachel Siewert, Deputy CEO at the Western Australian Council of Social Service.