In recognition of 2026 International Womens Day, we celebrated by hosting a fantastic event at ANU Agrifood Innovation Institute in collaboration with Future Crops Centre and ANU Gender Institute on Thursday 5 March 2026.

Key note speakers Brondwen MacLean and Lyndall Strazdins opened the session with their vast knowledge, sharing diverse experiences on career and gender inequalities between industry and academia. This enabled the participants to really engage, self-reflect, and opened the platform to share their own experiences. The attendees then broke off into groups, where some of the key themes in discussion were: the challenges and opportunities associated with career growth; systemic barriers; as well as the expectations and responsibilities that leadership have to encourage and enable real cultural change in a world where non-traditional career opportunities have grown, but the systems around us need to evolve a little more.

In true spirit of International Women's Day 2026, the room was buzzing with collective experiences and connection points that everyone could relate to, regardless of their gender, age, role or experience.

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