As International Women’s Day (IWD) approaches each year in Australia, a familiar feeling arises—a sense that representation in events across the country remains uneven.
This gap is highlighted in a new survey by Pureprofile, The 2025 More Voices, More Representation, which reveals mixed progress. While representation for Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander, and LGBTQIA+ women increased by 14 per cent, it dropped by 11 per cent for culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) women and 7 per cent for immigrants from non-English-speaking backgrounds.
Prabha Nandagopal, a lawyer from Elevate Consulting Partners and one of the voices behind the survey, shares her concerns. “At Elevate Partners, our goal is to work with organisations and communities to create safety, respect, and inclusion,” she says. “So when we see year on year women from diverse backgrounds being excluded from significant events such as International Women’s Day, it really impacts that inclusion factor. For me personally, as a woman of colour, it’s incredibly frustrating.”
Prabha notes that some event organisers mistakenly equate neurodiversity with overall diversity. She recalls a predominantly white panel and questions whether it included intersecting identities. While organisers highlighted neurodiverse speakers, she stresses that true inclusivity requires a broader approach—one that considers race, ethnicity, socioeconomic background, disability, and sexuality.
TIFF Ng, founder of The Social Story, is a strong advocate for the power of storytelling. “Much of the conversation about diversity and inclusion has to come from people’s lived experiences,” she says. “That’s why we need diverse people to be able to talk about it. When people with intersecting identities can own their stories and share them in these spaces, the ripple effects are powerful.”
She adds, “Storytelling, more than statistics, helps us measure progress. It’s when we hear personal experiences—like being excluded from panels or attending events that feel irrelevant—that we truly understand the barriers women of colour face.”
Nandagopal believes challenging these exclusions is crucial. “This is still an elephant in the room,” she says. “We need to get louder and call it out. The more we do that, organisations are on notice that they have to make their events more inclusive.”
Tiff builds on this, stressing the importance of solidarity. “It’s about finding community with others who are going through the same experiences,” she says. “Powerful campaigns like this one (More Voices) help us realise that our experiences aren’t singular. We can find strength in others facing the same challenges.”
She highlights that true inclusion isn’t about choosing one identity over another. “As women of colour, and for those with intersecting identities like queerness or disability, it shouldn’t be about one or the other. We should all be lifting each other up together.”
For both Prabha and Tiff, navigating the fine line between tokenism and genuine representation remains a challenge.
Tiff reflects on an event she attended last year, aimed at celebrating Asian voices. “It looked great on paper, it was amazing,” she recalls, but adds that the voices that were supposed to be heard that night were not. “We can take the win—they’re looking at us, at least there’s a platform for Asian Australians to have a voice. But there’s still so much more to be done.”
Prabha shares her mixed feelings about International Women’s Day events. “I find the majority are quite tokenistic,” she says. However, she remains optimistic. “If an organisation is going to make the effort to explore and engage speakers from diverse backgrounds, I don’t look at that as tokenistic. I look at that as progressive.”
While there is a growing awareness of the challenges faced by CALD and immigrant women in Australia, Tiff highlights a lingering paradox. “There’s still this tension—whether you continue to be ‘white-passing’ or whether you fully embrace and advocate for your identity. There is progress, but there’s much more to be done.”
Prabha expands on this, pointing to systemic barriers. “The problem lies in the structural inequalities and systemic racism. We’re not shifting the dial on that,” she says. She highlights examples in Parliament, such as Mehreen Faruqi and Fatima Payman, who have been vocal about racial issues. “These women are breaking barriers, but those barriers still exist for everyday women of colour, especially in workplaces.”
A recent report highlights this reality, showing a 10 per cent increase in women of colour reporting workplace discrimination, with racism being the most prevalent form.
As the conversation shifts towards the future of International Women’s Day in Australia, Prabha shares her vision for greater inclusivity. “I don’t want to be the only woman of colour on panels,” she says.
“There should be someone, preferably First Nations, and there needs to be a genuine mix that reflects the communities we live in now. I don’t want to always feel like the outsider.”
Tiff, too, offers a thoughtful perspective. “It’s always interesting framing these discussions around IWD,” she says. “It’s supposed to be a celebration of women, but we also have to highlight that women of colour aren’t having the same experiences. And this isn’t just an issue for one day—it persists every day.”
For both Prabha and Tiff, true progress lies in creating spaces where every woman—regardless of her background—feels seen, heard, and valued, not just on March 8th, but every day.
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