Women’s safety champion to deliver 2024 ANU Susan Ryan Oration

Women’s safety leader and advocate Ms Padma Raman will deliver the 2024 Susan Ryan Oration at The Australian National University (ANU) on 25 March.

The Susan Ryan Oration is the flagship International Women’s Day celebration at ANU and pays tribute to one of the University’s greatest advocates for age and gender equality.

Ms Ryan was one of the University’s greatest pioneers for equality and worked as the first female Senator for the ACT in 1975. She was also the first female to hold a Cabinet role in the Hawke Government.

Ms Ryan pioneered extensive anti-discrimination and equal opportunity legislation and was Australia’s first Age Discrimination Commissioner from 2011 until 2016.

Through the Susan Ryan Oration, ANU aims to foster critical dialogues on gender equity and discrimination, issues that Ms Ryan championed throughout her extensive career, and which continue to be pressing national debates today.

A member of ANU Council, Ms Raman was appointed Australia’s inaugural Executive Director of the Australian Government’s Office for Women in 2023.

Before her appointment to the role, Ms Raman was CEO of Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety.

Speaking at the time of her appointment to the Office for Women, ANU Chancellor the Hon Julie Bishop described Ms Raman as a “champion for women and children”.

“Padma has worked tirelessly to make significant and long-lasting change,” Ms Bishop said. “She has helped to shape Australia’s national efforts to end violence against women and their children, and raise public awareness and conversations on how we can strive to achieve this goal.”

Ms Raman’s 2024 Susan Ryan Oration will focus on ensuring greater gender equity in Australia and other key issues women in Australia face today.  

Registrations for the 2024 Susan Ryan Oration are still open at can be made online at this link:
https://events.humanitix.com/susan-ryan-oration-2024