Fantastic article in the Australian Women’s Agenda
Here’s the introduction
We are two women. Both women of colour, both lawyers, both who have collectively put in a couple of thousands of hours of volunteer work for our communities. Both have had to work hard to create a space for ourselves.
One is the first woman of South Asian background to be elected the Vice President of any Law Society and the other had the potential to be the first Federal parliamentarian of Vietnamese heritage.
Yet we are struggling to shatter the double-glazed glass ceiling that women of colour face. Many women of diverse backgrounds like us are well qualified, hard-working, conscientious and community minded. But we have to work doubly hard to prove ourselves, our mistakes are picked up and scrutinised more so than others and our efforts are constantly undermined.
We are not often directly told to go back to where we came from. These kinds of racist attacks mostly happen on the street, by an unknown person, and not in the professional legal, board and political circles that we frequent through work. But what happened last week, without really saying that, meant exactly that.
Former Prime Minister Paul Keating’s comments are a testimony to the devaluation of the talents of women of colour in discounting them as well-meaning intentions that lack the ability to ‘ever get there’. So if we can never get there because we are not good enough compared to our more-privileged compatriots, where does that leave us? Should we just pack our bags and go back home to achieve our ambitions? But wait, this is home.
When we have such rhetoric from a former Prime Minister, it validates, albeit, unfound, sentiments of many who think we are incompetent, inferior and unworthy of leadership positions.
Read the full article at
We cannot achieve diversity by replacing white men with white women
