Business in Heels has announced the winners of this year’s Recalibrate Gender Equity Awards for Australia.
Winning the Individual Manager category was Katura Halleday, who is only 18 years old and has spent the past five years as a sole trader, raising over $270,000 through her Social Enterprise, 8×8 to Educate, funds that are dedicated to supporting a scholarship program for girls in Africa.
The SME category was snagged for the second year in a row by Coulter Legal, a law firm that has been recognised for leading the way in practices such as the promotion of women to partner whilst on parental leave and the accommodation of their partner mums in a part-time, hybrid partner role.
The winning medium-sized company, with 100-4999 employees, was hospitality company The Ascott for offering paid menopausal and menstrual leave, as well as a ‘groundbreaking’ parental leave policy that provides 24 weeks of full-paid superannuation to primary caregivers.
The Recalibrate Gender Equity Awards seeks to recognise the outstanding efforts of organisations towards gender equity in the workplace.
“Today we are creating change, by sharing gender equity best practice policies, behaviours and activities we are fast-tracking their adoption,” CEO of Business in Heels and the driving force behind the Awards, Lisa Sweeney, said.
The ceremony was also highlighted by numerous success stories across different industries that were shared throughout the event, serving to both inspire and motivate not only business people, but as individuals.
Speaker at the event, Penelope Cottrill, of the Workplace Gender Equity Agency, described it as a “great event to give people time to reflect and appreciate their efforts, because it is a time of change with new policies rolling out”.
