Our commitment to gender equality
Victoria Legal Aid is committed to establishing a gender equitable, safe, inclusive, and respectful workplace for all staff, and to ensuring our services contribute to equitable access to legal assistance for our clients and the Victorian community. We recognise that the diversity of genders within our workforce includes people who identify as men, women, trans and gender diverse. We acknowledge greater awareness, support and focus is required to improve our workplace culture, so all staff feel visible, safe and supported.
We celebrate the contribution that all people bring to our organisation through shared experiences and views. We acknowledge intersectionality and recognise that the lived experiences of our staff from a variety of gender diverse, cultural backgrounds, faiths and traditions brings richness to our organisation and to the Victorian community.
We acknowledge, respect, and value gender diversity. We will listen to people’s lived experience of gender discrimination and disadvantage to help drive change across the Victorian justice and social system and promote cultural and attitudinal change in the broader community towards women and people who are trans and gender diverse.
Equality matters to us. That’s why we are taking steps to build an even more inclusive and supportive workplace where everybody feels heard, and where their differences, backgrounds and rights are respected.
Our plan
The Gender Equality Action Plan (GEAP) sits alongside our other diversity and inclusion plans, within our Inclusion Framework.
The GEAP is the next major step on our diversity and inclusion journey, laying out our goals and progress, and ensuring we remain accountable both to our staff and the community.
The plan has been developed in line with our obligations under the Gender Equality Act 2020. It contains eight strategy focus areas which incorporate the gender equality indicators in the Act. Each area has specific measures of success, that will bring about organisational change over the next four years and ensure that staff of all genders feel safe, visible and included in our workplace.
Focus areas
- gender pay equity
- gender composition of the workforce
- leadership and accountability
- workplace sexual harassment, bullying and discrimination
- recruitment and promotion practices in the workplace
- leave and flexible work, flexible working arrangements, and family and caring responsibilities
- improving data on gender and intersectionality in our workforce
- embedding gender equality in our programs and services.
Our GEAP was approved by the Commission for Gender Equality in the Public Sector in June 2022.
Read the plan
Updated