In celebration of International Women’s Day 2020 this week I’d like to thank all the women who speak and act out against inequality in all it’s forms.

While we’re celebrating, I’m proud to announce that I was one of 32 women featured in a report by the Public Health Association of Australia on women’s achievements in public health. You can read the report here. We were asked a series of questions about our experiences as leaders in public health. The overwhelming message from the women who contributed to the report was that we have many good support networks and mentors, but the patriarchal systems that govern us continue to let us down.

Globally, only 24.9% of parliamentarians are women. This statistic comes from UN Women who have produced this infographic of women’s representation in society—it’s not good news. While we can be proud of achievements we’ve made in advancing gender equality, we still have a long way to go to achieving it.

If you’d like to see what a country with real equality looks like, come and visit Equiterra. This country was developed by UN Women and is something we should all be striving to achieve.