Young Women In Local Democracy 50:50 by 2025

Women In Local Democracy in partnership with Women's Health and Wellbeing Barwon South West would like to offer professional training, mentoring and support to women aged 17-35 in the G21 (Barwon) region who are interested in running for local government in the future. Training would include public speaking, leadership, social media management and networking. Mentoring with other female leaders would also be a strong component of this project. The Young Women in Local Democracy project supports the gender equality goal of 50:50 representation on local councils by 2025.

Gender equity is the process of being fair to women and men by recognising diversity and disadvantage and directing resources accordingly to create equal outcomes. This project has identified an inequity in representation of women at a local government level, with only 30% of councillors in the region being female. Offering accessible support and training for young women to be confident community leaders will address the need for fair gender representation in local government.