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Summer 2006

Anna Stewart Memorial Project

The Anna Stewart Memorial Project aims to increase women’s participation in the union movement through the provision of training opportunities. The project is coordinated by the various peak union bodies around Australia and participants undertake two-weeks of activities, such as union placements and visits to worksites and involvement in current union campaigns, to give them an understanding of the full breadth of work undertaken by trade unions.

Essentially, the program provides participants with 'on the job' training with a view to facilitating greater involvement of women in the trade union movement. Participants are encouraged, at the completion of the project, to consider standing for union office or seek paid work within the union movement, to increase the representation of women in union decision-making structures.

Even today, despite increasing rates of female union membership on the ground, women are underrepresented among paid and elected union officials. The Anna Stewart Memorial Project is one way in which women within the Australian union movement are seeking to redress this imbalance.

Anna Stewart was an active union official in Victoria from 1974 to 1983, who died under tragic circumstances in 1983, aged 35. Anna was particularly committed to addressing the issues facing working women and to ensuring that women were adequately represented in the ranks of the union movement. The project was set up to honour and continue Anna's work.

Women interested in participating in next year's Anna Stewart Memorial Project should contact
Tania Rogers on 6231 2253 or tania@hacsutas.net.au