Council lure for women

A seminar to try to get more women involved in local government is taking place this week, spear-headed by Manjimup Shire deputy president Jayde Darin. Standing Up is a free event run by the Australian Local Government Women’s Association to get more women running for local councils all over the country. In Australia, the average representation of women on councils is 38 per cent, with females making up two-thirds of Manjimup’s elected members. Cr Darin said Standing Up was about connecting like-minded women who wanted to have a say in their community and were considering running for council. “The Standing Up program aims to increase the representation of women in local government by empowering more women to stand,” she said. “Thus providing them a network of other like-minded women to give them that support and also to support those candidates during their campaign ... to ensure that we get proper gender diversity in our local governments.” Cr Darin said it could be hard to juggle work and personal life, especially if the candidate was a young mother, but that was what Standing Up was trying to address by showing women it was possible to find the balance. The event is on August 5 and will feature a morning workshop and a question-and-answer panel with Cr Darin and Cr Wendy Eiby. Guest speakers include the country vice-president of the Australian Local Government Women’s Association, Amanda Lovitt, and the 2010 WA national ambassador for women in local government, Elizabeth Re.