Participants embraced the interactive nature of the event, starting with completion of a short anonymous survey that revealed everyone had either experienced or witnessed everyday sexisms. Anger, frustration and disbelief were common to responses to how these experiences of sexism made them feel. Responses to the question on steps to bring about change shared a commitment to keep speaking up against sexism.
The next activity involved working in small groups to capture immediate reactions to scenarios of sexisms. While the responses were perceptive, practical and empathetic, participants reflected that the activity highlighted the difficulty of responding to sexisms in the moment for a variety of reasons, including concern over escalating a volatile situation. Community Education and Training Officer Kayla Manuel, who facilitated the event, picked up on this difficulty of responding in real time and encouraged people to get more comfortable with responding rather than remaining silent, and not be limited or discouraged by the urge to be perfect in every response.
The Commission is extremely grateful to Mindy Blaise and Emily Gray of #FEAS who shared findings from their team’s research on understanding and addressing everyday sexisms in Australian universities 2021-2024. #FEAS has incorporated creativity, art and comedy to present their research at conferences in Australia and overseas. Fielding a question in the Q&A session about the use of humour around the serious issue of everyday sexisms, Mindy stressed #FEAS works to find the right balance and while humour is an invaluable tool in presenting its research, the focus remains clearly on providing people with evidence and facts.
The Commission will be hosting a follow-up event in 2025, so stay tuned!
