ATC celebrates International Women's Day

March 8, 2022

Today the Australian Turf Club joins organisations across the country to commemorate and acknowledge International Women’s Day. The day is an opportunity to celebrate women’s achievement, raise awareness against bias, and act for equality.

I am proud to work for a Club and in a sport where significant progress has been made for gender equality. Racing is one of the few sports where female and male athletes compete directly on a regular basis. Today, 30% of Australian jockeys are women with female jockeys now dominating regional meets. Currently in NSW there are more female jockey apprentices than male.

One of the primary missions of International Women’s Day is to forge inclusive work cultures where women’s careers thrive, and their achievements are celebrated, with this year’s theme being #BreakTheBias. I am pleased to report that 45% of the entire ATC workforce are female and 50% of our Executives are women. The ATC continue to promote training and development opportunities to both our female and male team members. Recently we have had 7 female team members undergo the Emerging Leaders program and 11 participate in our High Performing Teams training.

The ATC continues to ensure that gender equality, women’s health, and women’s issues such as maternity leave, are featured in ATC policies. Late last year, we updated our company Parental Leave Policy where eligible primary parents can now receive 10 weeks of full-pay (or 20 weeks at ½ pay) at the team member’s regular base pay of rate. Likewise, the Equal Employment Opportunity policy was updated in July 2021 based on the principle of all individuals having a fair and equitable access to employment opportunities based on merit without fear of discrimination or harassment. Every year we complete a ‘Workplace Gender Equality report’ to monitor our progress.

Our Health & Wellbeing committee have incorporated several women’s health initiatives such as Breast Cancer Awareness month into our annual calendar.

ATC Foundation has provided grant funding for The Deli Women and Children’s Centre, a trauma-based family support service, specialising in domestic violence service provision. The donation funded counselling, casework, groups and family support services to women and children, particularly those who have experienced domestic violence (DV).  We also continue our partnership with McGrath Foundation for the Pink Fashion Lunch at Rosehill Gardens.

Our ATC Team were invited to a morning tea (across our four racecourses) hosted by our Health & Wellbeing Committee, which included a virtual interview with trainer Clare Cunningham as we celebrate International Women’s Day.

#BreakTheBias