By Zoë Geyer

THIS week I spoke at the Bass Coast Shire Council breakfast event for International Women’s Day, focusing on the UN theme of ‘Gender equality today for a sustainable tomorrow: recognising how women around the world are responding to climate change’.
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Here I pause.

And take a breath.

It’s challenging to focus on the amazing contribution of women responding to climate change - without also drawing out the disadvantage and imbalance of power that women are still challenged with today. ​An imbalance that was highlighted by fellow speakers from Gippsland Women’s Health and Women for Change; evidenced in the statistics of women’s lower incomes and security, older women’s homelessness, domestic violence, sexual assault and rape, and disempowerment from leadership positions. 

​By Zoe Geyer
 
LIVING in these pandemic-governed times has exemplified two extremes of the human paradox: the need for privacy, and the need to be part of something bigger (let’s call this our community).
 
Writing as I am from Victoria’s sixth lockdown, we are all too familiar with the craving for socialising, and to escape the confines of the house for a healthy dose of the outdoors. Cabin fever has set in but, exacerbated by the overdrive we find ourselves faced with in the ‘home’ environment: working simultaneously across multiple communication streams and platforms (mobiles, texts, emails, social media, Zoom, Teams, etc), children and home-schooling, isolation and constant adaptation to uncontrollable circumstances. The mental health impacts are widely discussed.