To celebrate International Women’s Day 2024 the Parliamentary Education team at the Parliament of New South Wales held the annual Young Women’s Leadership Seminar (YWLS) for Year 11 students and their teachers.  

The theme of International Women’s Day 2024 was #inspireinclusion. 

The Young Women’s Leadership Seminar provided an opportunity for students to hear from an inspiring keynote speaker – Associate Professor Lisa Williams, Associate Dean, Equity Diversity and Inclusion in the UNSW Faculty of Science. You can watch her speech below:

In addition, a panel of female Members of Parliament discussed highlights, challenges and opportunities they have experienced throughout their careers. Students had the chance to ask questions during the Q&A component of the program. By meeting and engaging with a variety of women in leadership roles and discussing the issues that they face, the seminar aimed to inspire students to consider leadership roles in their future careers.   

Biography – Associate Professor Lisa Williams

Associate Professor Lisa Williams is a social psychologist whose research examines the dynamics between emotional experience and social interaction. Much of her research focuses on how positive emotions that arise in the context of social interactions function at the interpersonal, interpersonal, intergroup, and societal levels.  Associate Professor Williams is an advocate and mobiliser for equity, diversity and inclusion in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). She is the Associate Dean, Equity Diversity and Inclusion in the UNSW Faculty of Science and previously a member of UNSW’s Science in Australia Gender Equity (SAGE) Ltd/Athena Swan Self-Assessment Team.  As Chief Investigator of the Women in STEM Ambassador grant, she provides strategic direction to the Office’s activities. Associate Professor Williams also supports the Office’s research projects to build empirical evidence supporting the efficacy of programs to shift the dial towards gender equity in STEM.