Since 2017, we have been working to align our organisation's work with the 30 - year clever and creative vision established by the community.
GEAP - The case for change
The vision developed, based on input from 16,000 community members, was:
By 2047, Greater Geelong will be internationally recognised as a clever and creative city-region that is forward looking, enterprising and adaptive and cares for its people and environment.
The vision is closely connected to Our Community Plan 2021-2025, the key council plan that tells our community what our councillors are aiming to achieve during their four-year term. The Gender Equality Action Plan in turn, links to the vision through the following strategic directions in Our Community Plan:
- Strategic Direction 1: Healthy, caring and inclusive community.
- Strategic Direction 4: High-performing Council and organisation.
It also links to our Organisation Strategy and the priority: ‘Our people are our greatest asset.’
City of Greater Geelong Four Year Organisation Strategy
Our vision
By 2046, Greater Geelong will be internationally recognised as a clever and creative city-region that is forward looking, enterprising and adaptive, and care for its people and environment.
Council's strategic priorities
- Sustainable and Liveable growth
- Strong local economy
- Healthy and inclusive community
- High performing Council and organiation
Our organisational priorities
| Customer first | Process second | Our people are our greatest asset | We manage the City’s money wisely |
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Business case for change
The business case for change is clear to us. We confirmed our commitment to diversity, inclusion, equity, and justice through the development of our Inclusion and Diversity Roadmap in 2021.
The roadmap states:
We are committed to creating an inclusive organisation that supports and encourages its employees to do their best work, have equal access to opportunities and a just working environment.
We make this commitment with our customers and community in mind knowing that our customers will be better understood and our services more innovative when we are a mature, inclusive and diverse organisation.
We know that gender equality is good for everybody, and it is key to our success in being able to care for all our people and environment.
Gender equality will help us affirm that people are our greatest asset and, by understanding intersectional gender inequalities, it will increase our capabilities to build an inclusive workplace where everyone can thrive. This in turn will support us in our aspiration to be a high-performing council and organisation.
Inclusion and Diversity Roadmap
Inclusive ways of working and diverse perspectives are wholly part of our DNA
We are an inclusive and diverse organisation with strong partnerships. We work in an agile and adaptive way to bring the right voices to the table at the right time in service of our community. We are externally recognised for both our culture and our evolution.
Diverse perspectives enrich our everyday and are key drivers of performance
Inclusion is part of our DNA and our policy and process framework reflect this. Diverse perspectives are seen and heard at most levels in the organisation. Ways of working actively promote access, equity, inclusion and the voice of diverse perspectives.
We actively welcome more diversity into the workplace
Specific initiatives to target employment of diverse groups. Continue to strengthen inclusion with capability uplift nuanced to address specific directorate/team requirements. Recognition and celebration of success.
We've got our inclusion and diversity basics right and strong foundations in place
Inclusion roadmap, governance and action plans are in place. Active focus on building an inclusive culture which values difference so that diverse talents will be more likely to be retained. Working in step with Future Ways of Working (FWoW) to hardwire and ensuring the City is working in line with relevant legislation.
The five pillars of social inclusion for the Greater Geelong community and our people
| Diversity | Voice | Access | Participation | Responsibility | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Geelong community | We value people from all walks of life and the different perspectives they bring. | We give people a in what services they need and how they work, and influence decisions that affect them. | We remove barriers from places, resources or opportunities for all people. | We encourage and support all people to have the skills and ability to engage in social, civil and economic endeavours. | We ask all people take responsibility to make best use of the opportunities available and speak up when they need to. |
| Our people | Our workforce reflects the diversity of the community we serve. | We harness diversity to improve outcomes. | Our policies and structures enable all our workforce to work where they can be most effective. | We support all employees to participate equally at the City. | Everyone is responsible to support inclusion. |
Gender equality principles
Below is a summary of how we believe the work we’ve done links to the Gender Equality Principles.
| Principle | Our response and reflections |
|---|---|
| All Victorians should live in a safe and equal society, have access to equal power, resources and opportunities and be treated with dignity, respect and fairness | We acknowledge that gender equality has not yet been achieved, but are committed as a local government authority to look inward to incorporate gender equality principles, alongside our social equity principles, so that every member of our community can be supported to participate fully, be included, and can live a healthy and fulfilling life. By building a diverse and equitable workplace where all people can thrive, we will be able to provide equitable access to our services and facilities, form partnerships that achieve better health outcomes and harness community knowledge to drive sustainable change and eliminate inequalities. By acknowledging and recognising intersectional gender inequalities, we will also be able to develop special measures as required. |
| Gender equality benefits all Victorians regardless of gender | |
| Gender equality is a human right and precondition to social justice | |
| Gender equality brings significant economic, social and health benefits for Victoria | |
| Gender equality is a precondition for the prevention of family violence and other forms of violence against women and girls | |
| Advancing gender equality is a shared responsibility across the Victorian community | |
| All human beings, regardless of gender, should be free to develop their personal abilities, pursue their professional careers and make choices about their lives without being limited by gender stereotypes, gender roles or prejudices | |
| Gender inequality may be compounded by other forms of disadvantage or discrimination that a person may experience based on Aboriginality, age, disability, ethnicity, gender identity, race, religion, sexual orientation and other attributes | |
| Women have historically experienced discrimination and disadvantage based on sex and gender | |
| Special measures may be necessary to achieve gender equality |
Linked frameworks, strategies and roadmaps
This action plan references and links to:
- Greater Geelong: A Clever and Creative Future
- Our Community Plan 2021–2025
- Organisational Strategy
- Foundational Workforce Plan 2021–2025
- Sustainability Framework
- Social Equity Framework
- Inclusion and Diversity Roadmap
- Access and Inclusion Plan 2018–2022
- Reflect Reconciliation Action Plan
- Leadership Capability Framework
- Our culture change program, Working Better Together
Our history of gender equality work
We have been working to improve gender equality both in our organisation and in the community over many years.
One way we have done this is by incorporating social equity principles into our approach and supporting feminist organisations and campaigns, such as Reclaim the Night and 16 Days of Activism, to raise awareness about violence against women and girls. We have also worked strategically with regional partners through G21 since its establishment. As part of this work, G21 is currently developing and finalising a comprehensive gender equality strategy: Respect 2040.
As an organisation, we have implemented a range of gender equity activities, including:
- endorsing the Victorian Local Government Women’s Charter in 1997
- being involved with, and supporting, Women in Local Democracy (WiLD) since 2012
- forming a women’s advisory committee to Council – Women in Community Life Advisory Committee (WiCLAC) in 2013
- International Women’s Day Awards – Women in Community Life Awards since 2015.
Individuals and groups across our organisation have been proactive in embedding gender equity approaches in their community work, service delivery, development of informal staff networks and departmental initiatives to tackle gendered workforce segregation.
In 2016, we conducted a workforce gender equity audit to get an understanding of how we were doing. Several areas, including women in leadership, workforce segregation, and gender pay parity, were identified as focus areas and have all improved over time. However, some issues persist as our overall workforce composition from 2015 to 2021 has remained virtually unchanged. This is largely due to the pervasive impacts of social conditioning, heteronormative stereotypes, gender norms, and inherent gender inequalities perpetuated by systemic and structural barriers, such as gendered workforce segregation.
Preceding this action plan, we developed Ba-gurrk: A gender equity framework for the Greater Geelong Region. This was used to highlight our internal and external commitment to dismantling intersectional gender disparities and focused on three spheres of influence: leadership; organisational policies and procedures; and community.
We will endeavour to build on these initiatives to further meet our obligations under the Gender Equality Act 2020 by mobilising gender impact assessments across our work, and building a culture of acceptance and belonging set out in our Inclusion and Diversity Roadmap.
Gender equity initiatives over time
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