The Hellenic Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (HACCI) marked International Women’s Day on Tuesday evening at the Hellenic Museum with a sold-out panel discussion that focussed on the theme of the day: Break the Bias and how that applied to women.
HACCI’s chair Fotini Kypraios hosted the discussion that included Judge Nola Karapanagiotidis (County Court of Victoria), Corinne Proske who is the CEO of Josbank and Vivienne Nguyen, the chair of the Victorian Multicultural Commission (VMC).
Ms Kypraios said the Break the Bias theme was “an opportunity to consciously examine our biases, recognise the biases that exist preventing equality and inclusion and break them down”.
She said the COVID-19 pandemic had increased the gaps in pay to the disadvantage of women around the world. The pandemic had extended the eventual closing of the gender-pay gap from 99.5 years before the pandemic to 135.6 years at present.
“That’s hard to look at. It’s not my lifetime, it’s not my son’s lifetime,” said Corinne Proske, CEO of Jobsbank, whose organisation helps businesses to introduce greater diversity and inclusion to their workplaces.
The speakers also shared their experiences as women of multicultural backgrounds who had risen to high levels in their chosen industries. They said women from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds had to navigate past additional challenges whether they were first-, second- or third-generation migrants to Australia.
Judge Karapanagiotidis who had 20 years as a barrister who advocated for refugees and women in the criminal justice system said she had been expected not to do well when she was growing up.
She noted that the support that she received from the Greek-Australian community following her appointment to the Victoria County Court bench last year had been personally humbling but also empowering to those around her.
“I believe it’s because they’re seeing someone that reflects them, that represents them,” Judge Karapanagiotidis said.
Ms Nguyen said there were often entrenched biases within migrant families.
“We don’t just carry our own issues and trauma, we carry our whole community’s. I’m too Australian in my Vietnamese family, and I’m too Vietnamese in my Australian context,” said the VMC chair.
In advising the younger women in the audience she referred to the rich and deep cultural experience that was the experience of many migrants.
“Be proud of what you have. What you have is what many others don’t,” Ms Nguyen said.
Ms Proske said: “It’s a gift that you can give within families and multicultural families do that well.”
“Be confident. Back yourself. Your diversity is an asset, your community mindedness is an asset, your courage is an asset,” Judge Karapanagiotidis told the audience.
