Local Women Leading Change - Life as a Woman Councillor

Life as a Woman Councillor 

In this session, women candidates will be provided with an opportunity to hear from previous women councillors about their experiences representing local community. From standing for office, to getting elected and serving as a Councillor, the unique experiences of women will be shared in an informal and relaxed environment promoting discussion and sharing of ideas.

Facilitators Profile

Tanja Kovac

Tanja has over twenty years as a gender equity change specialist, bringing together disciplines of law and justice, campaigning & influencing, behavioural change techniques & data visualisation for equality and social change.  

She has helped apply a gender lens to hundreds of organisations of all shapes and sizes - from global firms to small business; Local, State and Federal Governments to NGO's in the community sector. 

A trained lawyer, Tanja commenced work as a solicitor, specialising in public interest & human rights litigation, where she assisted survivors of police misconduct & family violence, acted for Amnesty International in the case concerning refugees aboard the MV Tampa and victims of the Black Saturday Bushfires.

Tanja is a former CEO of Gender Equity Victoria and served as Chief of Staff to the late Fiona Richardson MP, Australia’s first Family Violence Prevention Minister, where she was responsible for overseeing Victoria’s strategic family violence prevention and gender equality agenda, including creating the Victoria’s first Gender Equality Strategy. She also spent 10 years as Director and National-Convenor of EMILY’s List Australia, (where she met Maree) and was instrumental in developing gender-based campaign strategies, establishing the Julia Gillard Next Generation Internship for young women leaders, as well as advocating for policy change, including setting an affirmative action target for women - 50/50 by 2025. 

Tanja co-authored Measure for Measure: Gender Equality in Australia, for think tank Per Capita, where she is a Senior Fellow, calling for a life-course approach to national gender transformation, aligned to rigorous reporting against targets and measures.

Check out Tanja's writing on gender equity & women's leadership here:

Five things the Jobs Summit must do for gender equity, Women's Agenda, 2022

Women unite in anger to march on Parliament and across the nation, Sydney Morning Herald, 2021 

First female PM a job with no guidelines, Sydney Morning Herald, 2013 

Dr Maree Overall

Maree's life has been dedicated to women’s health and gender equality. With a research career that has spanned infection and immunity, developmental biology, reproduction and fertility, Maree applies quantitative and qualitative evidence and analysis to bring about gender equal outcomes.  

She has a 20-year career in public and political advocacy, beginning in the medical field, where she developed her passion for supporting women in STEM, before pivoting to lifting the numbers of women in parliaments across Australia. 

As a former CEO of EMILY’s List Australia she was critically involved in national campaigns to decriminalise abortion and affirmative action. Hooked into reproductive rights and political advocacy from the first time she heard Victoria's first and only female Premier Joan Kirner speak at the launch of EMILY's List in 1997, Maree's determination to create positive change for women via political representation has been a focus ever since.  

Maree has the research and evidence to prove that gender targets and quotas work. 

Affirmative action has resulted in an increase from 14% to 52% representation of women in major political parties in Australia. And she's been instrumental in making that transformation happen. 

Other significant career achievements include:

• Responsibility for the development of the Strategy for the Prevention of Family Violence and All Forms of Violence Against Women in Victoria
• Strategic advocacy to support the decriminalisation of sex-work in Victoria
• Lifting the representation of indigenous women in Parliaments across the country 

Check out Maree's Gender Impact Analysis research here. 

Impact Analysis: Legislative & Policy Achievements of EMILY's List Australia women in Power, Andrews Labor Government, 2014 – 2018