CAPOW conference
By Kath Tucker
The first conference of the Coalition of Australian Participating Organisations of Women (CAPOW) was very successful, conference organiser Ingrid Fitzgerald told Green Left Weekly.
CAPOW is a network of women's groups and organisations around the country. The main themes of the conference, held in Canberra November 26-28, were to bring women and women's organisations together to network, to identify strategies to overcome obstacles to gender inequality and to start involvement in the preparation for the international women's conference to be held in Beijing in 1995.
The conference achieved these aims, Fitzgerald said, especially in terms of the involvement of a broad range of women. At a time when "coalition politics are crucial", CAPOW provides a framework for women to network and maintain their independence, while working together.
Regional groups have been set up in Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney and Perth to work on identifying "strategies, rather than wish lists" to overcoming gender inequality in the lead-up to 1995. CAPOW will continue to network with women around Australia. Proposals include tours to discuss the Beijing conference, and running specific issue forums, e.g. on women and the constitution or taxation.
CAPOW does not see itself as playing the role of an organising body, and stresses that no decisions are binding on any woman or women's organisation which participates in its activities.
The conference was attended by 350 women. Featured speakers included Justice Dierdre O'Connor, who spoke on women and the judiciary; Rosemary Crowley, minister assisting the prime minister on the status of women; and Rosemary Follet, ALP ACT chief minister.