Life as a woman councillor candidate training

From standing for office, to getting elected and serving as a councillor, learn directly from women about their unique experiences in local government. In collaboration with the Victorian Local Governance Association, we are offering candidate training for future women councillors.

About the speakers

Maree Overall

Dr Maree Overall's life has been dedicated to women’s health and gender equality. With a research career that has spanned infection and immunity, developmental biology, reproduction and fertility, Maree applies quantitative and qualitative evidence and analysis to bring about gender equal outcomes. She has a 20-year career in public and political advocacy, beginning in the medical field, where she developed her passion for supporting women in STEM, before pivoting to lifting the numbers of women in parliaments across Australia. As a former CEO of EMILY’s List Australia she was critically involved in national campaigns to decriminalise abortion and affirmative action. Hooked into reproductive rights and political advocacy from the first time she heard Victoria's first and only female Premier Joan Kirner speak at the launch of EMILY's List in 1997,  her determination to create positive change for women via political representation has been a focus ever since.

Tanja Kovac

Tanja Kovac has over 20 years as a gender equity change specialist, bringing together disciplines of law and justice, campaigning and influencing, behavioural change techniques & data visualisation for equality and social change. A trained lawyer, Kovac commenced work as a solicitor, specialising in public interest and human rights litigation, where she assisted survivors of police misconduct and family violence, acted for Amnesty International in the case concerning refugees aboard the MV Tampa and victims of the Black Saturday Bushfires. She is a former CEO of Gender Equity Victoria and served as Chief of Staff to the late Fiona Richardson MP, Australia’s first Family Violence Prevention Minister, where she was responsible for overseeing Victoria’s strategic family violence prevention and gender equality agenda, including creating the Victoria’s first Gender Equality Strategy. She also spent 10 years as Director and National-Convenor of EMILY’s List Australia, (where she met Maree Overall) and was instrumental in developing gender-based campaign strategies, establishing the Julia Gillard Next Generation Internship for young women leaders, as well as advocating for policy change, including setting an affirmative action target for women 50/50 by 2025.

When

Location

This event will run in-person and online concurrently.

Level 4, Banyule Council, 1 Flintoff Street, Greensborough, 3088, View Map