International Women’s Day (IWD), a day of celebration of women and the achievements made by and for women, is on Friday 8 March.

The PSA CPSU NSW supports this day. It is a time we can reflect on the achievements we have reached in the fight for women’s rights and gender equality and the role unions have played at the forefront of this. International Woman’s Day also encourages us to come together and consider the battles that still need to be fought!

Your union, the PSA CPSU NSW, has fought for equal pay, equal access to job opportunity, paid parental leave and job security, flexible work hours, family and community service leave, lactation breaks, and, more recently, 20 days’ paid domestic violence leave and improvements to paid parental leave entitlements.

International Women’s Day is also about the celebration of women worldwide and the promotion of economic empowerment, gender equality and basic human rights.

If you want to celebrate this important day with action rather than a cupcake, we urge you to attend an IWD rally on Saturday 9 March 2024, and remember the many battles women have won when they work as a collective. Come along and help get the message out that we still have much to fight for!

The Australian total remuneration average gender pay gap is 21.7 per cent. In the public sector, this gap is much lower at 6.2 per cent. However, this has increased over the past three years and is the highest it has been in a decade. Women still retire with far less super than men. We have workplaces that are still unsafe for many women with high levels of exposure to sexual harassment. We need to fight to change the fact that women and children experience domestic violence at far greater levels than men, and women more often carry the burden of caring responsibilities and need job security and better access to flexible work. We are also fighting for reproductive leave for women.

International Women’s Day March in Sydney

The PSA CPSU NSW, alongside other unions and women’s organisations, will be rallying together from 11am at Sydney Town Hall on Saturday 9 March in celebration of IWD. The theme for this event is ‘Powering Equality: Accelerating Inclusion’.

We encourage all PSA CPSU NSW members to come together to celebrate women by joining with us and showing pride in your union and its achievements. Look for the PSA CPSU NSW flags at Sydney Town Hall. Some will be red, white, and black, others will be purple with PSA CPSU NSW WOMEN on them.

You can find out further information on this event on Facebook HERE.

You can also contact PSA Women’s Industrial Officer Simone Scalmer at

International Women’s Day March in Newcastle

The Union of Australian Women NSW (Newcastle Branch), and the Hunter Workers Women’s Committee is also holding an International Women’s Day Annual Rally on Saturday 9 March from 10:00am-12:00pm.

Marchers will start gathering at Gregson Park from 10:00am, ready to march at 10:30 am through Hamilton. Afterwards you will hear from some fantastic  feminist activist speakers!

PSA members can meet up in the park together to march and celebrate as a union. If you would like to attend this event you can contact PSA Organiser Melanie Coombes directly at

Flexible Work Lunch and Learn on IWD

Our own PSA Women’s Council has a strong history of advancing the needs of women in the workplace for more than 90years. Through a ‘Call to Action’ at our Annual Women’s Conference last year, we learned that equitable access to flexible working conditions is at the top of the list of concerns our women members have in the workplace.

We have arranged a ‘Lunch and Learn’ seminar on Flexible Work Practices to assist you to better understand flexible working arrangements, the types of arrangements available in different awards and agreements, tips for making a flexible work application and resolving any issues that arise in this process. This will be held on Friday 8 March 2024 at 12:30pm.

You can register to participate in this online event HERE.

Celebrate women in your workplace!

The improvements to women’s working lives would not have been possible without women fighting for change in their workplaces. If you have an event celebrating International Women’s Day in your workplace tag the PSA on Facebook, on Instagram or send your photos to