A culturally diverse group of approximately 200 women of different ages met for the annual Women’s Power Forum to discuss their battles with finding work.
The discussions varied from their settlement experiences to the problems faced entering a foreign workforce and being financially independent. Many shared their views on the belief that often their “foreign” name on their CV would act as a barrier, despite having all the right qualifications.
Discrimination is still something that many younger migrant women feel, and speaker Cr Kris Pavlidis sympathised with them. “In my view the systemic barriers that many migrants and particularly women encounter, are not a new phenomenon. “We continue to have small reminders, of significant impact, that the ‘dominant Anglo host society syndrome’ is alive within our successful multicultural Melbourne, when a second generation Greek, Australian born and educated person is referred to as a ‘migrant woman’ because her name is Kris Pavlidis,” she said.
The forum centred on a panel of ethnically diverse women elected into local government, and was hosted by Hume City Cr Helen Patsikatheodorou. It is an initiative of the Victorian Immigrant and Refugee Women’s Coalition. Women still receive 70 cents to every dollar a man earns.
