15 signs of progress for women in the last year

In celebration of International Women's Day, I've collated a list of some of the most historic, influential and progressive moments for women in the last year. I invite you to sit back and reflect (and fist-pump and cry and sigh and celebrate) with me about the year that was.

7 March 2017 - Fearless Girl sets the tone

On the eve of International Women's Day last year, a 4-foot bronze statue of a girl by Kirsten Visbal was installed in New York opposite Wall Street's famous charging bull. With her hands on her hips, her head held high and a look of defiance on her face, "Fearless Girl" in many ways set the tone for a year of courage, activism and, progress for women. "Fearless Girl" was only scheduled to remain in place for a week, but due to her incredible popularity - including 500,000 social media mentions in a single day - she was left in place for the year and will soon find a permanent home in the city.

1 June 2017 - Wonder Woman is released

The superhero movie genre has been dominated by white male superheroes for some time. So it was a surprise and delight when the female-led, female-directed movie about a female superhero, Wonder Woman, became the highest grossing superhero-origin film ever. The film held the title for nearly 8 months and has just this week been overtaken by Black Panther, a worthy successor from a diversity perspective.

22 June 2017 - Larissa Waters moves a motion in Parliament while breastfeeding

In May, former Australian Greens senator Larissa Waters became the first woman to breastfeed in parliament. In June, she put forward a motion on black lung disease in the Senate while feeding her baby daughter Alia Joy. An incredible legacy to leave in paving the way for acceptance of breastfeeding at work.

3 August 2017 - Australian Women's Cricket Team negotiate a historic pay deal

Women's Cricket cemented its place as the leader in pay for female athletes in Australia. In 2011-12 the women on average earned only $2,000 a season, in 2016-17 that had grown to $22,000 and more recently, players had gone without any pay during the pay dispute. The deal struck in August made state and national players fully professional, with Australian players earning a minimum of $72,000 and top players like Meg Lanning and Ellyse Perry (pictured, who also have media commitments) earning between $200,000 - $300,000, equal to the male players at the same level. The deal is enormously significant in setting the tone for other sports to follow suit. The sweetest reward for our cricketers came when the women's team took home the Ashes this season!

26 September 2017 - Saudi women are given the right to drive

Saudi Arabia made news around the world in September when King Salman decreed that women will be allowed to obtain a drivers license from June 2018. The last country in the world to disallow women from driving, the move was considered to be a significant step in the direction of women's empowerment. Many working Saudi women have spent considerable portions of salary on drivers or relied upon male relatives to transport them, making this change extremely significant in terms of independence and freedom. Saudi Arabia's first driving school recently opened for registrations and received 165,000 in three days.

5 October 2017 - Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor break the Weinstein story

After months of research, Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor (pictured) of the New York Times broke the story of Harvey Weinstein's repeated and incessant sexual assault and harassment of women he worked with over the course of his career. The allegations were so explosive and Weinstein so well-known that many asked how this monster had been able to 'get away with it' for such a long time. Alongside so many allegations came the stories of people who'd been told, who’d heard and not asked more questions, who'd known and failed to enact change. With each passing day, more and more people came out of the woodwork with their own accusations. In what will no doubt go down as one of the most tide-turning pieces of investigative journalism in our time, this story began a much-needed, long-overdue, global conversation about the sexual assault and harassment of women at work and the unveiling of other high-profile offenders.

16 October 2017 - #MeToo

After 10 days of Weinstein and media and questions, Alyssa Milano shared a tweet.

48 hours later, the hashtag #MeToo had been used more than one million times as women (and men) gave the world a live survey on just how widespread experiences of sexual harassment and assault are.

18 October 2017 - Tracey Spicer takes on telling Australia's #metoo stories

Two days after Alyssa Milano, Tracey Spicer sent out her own tweet.

 In the fortnight that followed, she received 500 responses, which has since grown to 1,500 and led to the undoing of Don Burke, then Craig McLachlan. Spicer is working alongside Fairfax's Kate McClymont, with investigations into 40 further media figures ongoing.

Tracey received Australia Day this year for her work with charities and broadcast journalism. I am certain she will be one of the most influential Australian feminists of our generation.

15 November 2018 - Marriage Equality Postal Survey returns a 'Yes' vote!

In a victory for the LGBTIQ+ community and Australia as a whole, the result of the marriage equality postal survey was 'Yes!'. The majority of voters in Australia were women and the campaign was greatly aided by Penny Wong and Magda Szubanski (pictured) who took leadership roles in the Yes campaign.

12 December 2017 - Feminism named Miriam Webster's Word of the Year

Word experts, Miriam Webster announced their 2017 word of the year to be: feminism. The 'word of the year' is an insight into the collective curiosity of us, the public. Feminism was looked up 70% more in 2017 than it was in 2016 and continued to be searched in line with major moments of activism throughout the year.

1 January 2018 - Iceland leads the world in mandating equal pay

On New Years Day, Iceland became the first country in the world to mandate fines for companies who pay women less than men. Dagny Osk Aradottir Pind, an Icelandic Women's Rights Association board member, told Al Jazeera: "We have managed to get to the point that people that the legislation we have had in place is not working, and we need to do something more". Companies with more than 25 employees will be required to demonstrate men and women receive the same salary for the same job. Larger companies will need to comply by 2019 and all companies by 2021. Will Iceland set a tone that the world follow? Watch this space.

7 January 2017 - #TimesUp

At the 2018 Golden Globes, we saw a remarkable show of solidarity with nearly all female attendees dressing in black in support of the Time's Up Movement and in solidarity with victims of sexual assault. The Time's Up initiative was founded by an all-female group of Hollywood heavyweights, who have put resources in place to fight the systemic culture of sexual assault in their industry and beyond. The initiative includes a legal defense fund, to help women with resources to fight sexual harassment and assault. Big name stars also brought activists as their plus-ones, including Michelle Williams who brought Tarana Burke, the original founder of the Me Too movement (well before hashtags existed) in 2007.

As great as the practical resources are, the most significant outcome of the Time's Up movement and show of solidarity at the Golden Globes was undoubtedly the power of aligning women's activism so strongly with popular culture.

18 January 2018 - NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announces she’s expecting

It was a high-five moment with our friends across the bay when they elected 37-year-old Jacinda Ardern as New Zealand's 40th Prime Minister and the youngest female head of government in the world.

Ardern has had good reasons to be in the media limelight in the last year (NZ’s offer of help in ongoing refugee situation and her witty retort to President Trump amongst them) but the spotlight shone most brightly upon her when she and her husband announced they are expecting their first child in June 2018. How possibly will she run the country and be a new mum at the same time? Just watch.

Fun fact: when in her spare time, Jacinda loves to DJ, you can listen to one of her sets on Spotify here. I'm not even joking.

31 January 2018 - Formula One Scraps Grid Girls

In a move that had an unprecedented number of men speaking out on the rights of women at work, F1 announced in January announced there would no longer employ walk-on girls at their events, saying the practice was at odds with "modern-day societal norms". The 'girls' will be replaced with kids, giving 'the next generation' of F1 drivers the opportunity to engage more closely with the sport.

Plenty of media time was given to the voices speaking out against the decision. Hopefully, the F1 will look for further ways to showcase the many women using their intellectual talent in the sport or look to bring on female ambassadors in a way that celebrates women's voices, not just appearance.

5 March 2018 - Women support Women at the Oscars

This week, Frances McDormand won the Best Actress Academy Award for her remarkable performance in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri. Instead of using her speech solely to thank others, she asked every nominated woman in the room to stand up and encouraged others in the room fund their next projects. She then left the audience "with two words: inclusion rider" referring to the clauses inserted in contracts around terms, and later qualified backstage that people should be demanding diversity of cast and crew in their contracts.

 Not captured on tv was the very lovely moment that happened shortly after, where the remaining nominees in the category (Margot Robbie, Meryl Streep, Saoirse Ronan and Sally Hawkins, pictured) embraced. It was one of many heartwarming moments for women in the awards season. If "fearless girl" was the right place to start this post, women embracing women feels like the right place to leave it.

 ---

So that's been our year. As we look forward to the next 12 months we each have the opportunity to ask ourselves – what legacy are we creating? Or not creating? We have countless opportunities to #pressforprogress, to lift the women around us up, to challenge the status quo where it holds us back and create the future we want for the generation that follows us.

What will you do?