Elizabeth Broderick is an Australian lawyer, who was the Australian

Sex Discrimination Commissioner The Sex Discrimination Commissioner is an Australian federal government position established to oversee the operation of the ''Sex Discrimination Act 1984''. The position was created alongside the Act as one of the specialist commissioners of the ...

for over eight years from 2007 to 2015 and has been a United Nations special rapporteur for Discrimination against Women and Girls since 2017. She is a former partner and head of legal technology at

Ashurst Australia Ashurst Australia is the Australian branch of Ashurst LLP, an international commercial law firm. The Australian headquarters of Ashurst are in Sydney. Prior to its acquisition by Ashurst, the Australian firm was named Blake Dawson, one of the ...

(then called Blake Dawson Waldron), a global commercial law firm.

Early life

Broderick grew up in

Caringbah, New South Wales Caringbah is a suburb in Southern Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. Caringbah is south of the Sydney central business district in the Local government in Australia, local government area of Sutherland Shire. Caringbah once st ...

as the daughter of a doctor and physiotherapist, Frank and Margot. She has two sisters including an

identical twin Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy.MedicineNet > Definition of TwinLast Editorial Review: 19 June 2000 Twins can be either ''monozygotic'' ('identical'), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two em ...

, Jane Latimer. She was Head Girl in 1978 at

Meriden School , motto_translation = Always faithful , established = , type = Independent single-sex early learning, primary, and secondary day school , gender = Girls , denomination = Anglicanism , educational_authority = New South Wales De ...

Strathfield Strathfield is a suburb in the Inner West of Sydney, in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located 12 kilometres west of the Sydney central business district and is the administrative centre of the Municipality of Strathfield. A smal ...

Career

Broderick is trained as a lawyer. She has spoken publicly about her own experiences of sexual harassment by a client as a young lawyer. At law firm Blake Dawson Waldron (now Ashurst), Broderick worked part-time for twelve years while she was a partner - the first partner at the firm to work part-time. She also created a database giving people legal advice at low cost. Broderick was named "Telstra NSW Business Woman of the Year" (2000–2001).

Sex Discrimination Commissioner

Broderick was appointed

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

John Howard John Winston Howard (born 26 July 1939) is an Australian former politician who served as the 25th prime minister of Australia from 1996 to 2007, holding office as leader of the Liberal Party. His eleven-year tenure as prime minister is the s ...

in 2007. Her term was extended by the

Rudd government Rudd Government may refer to the following Australian governments: * Rudd government (2007–10) Rudd Government may refer to the following Australian governments: * Rudd government (2007–10) * Rudd government (2013) {{Dab ... * Rudd gov ...

and again by the Abbott government. As Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Broderick worked on equal-pay cases, "proposed a model for the paid parental leave scheme", and commented publicly on sexual harassment cases. Broderick persuaded some of "the most powerful men in the country" to publicly commit to being part of a group called Male Champions of Change (MCC) and take action on gender inequality. The group is still active and has inspired the creation of many MCC groups in other sectors, including architecture, property, elite sports and in Victoria. Current members of the Founding MCC group include,

Alan Joyce Alan Joyce (born 21 October 1942) is a former Australian rules footballer who after playing 49 games for Hawthorn became a premiership winning coach for the club. Originally from Glen Iris, Joyce played in the ruck for Hawthorn, and ultimate ...

, Kevin McCann, Martin Parkinson,

David Thodey David Ingle Thodey (born 14 May 1954) is an Australian businessman who is a former chief executive officer of Telstra and currenchairmanof accounting software company Xero. Thodey was born in Perth, Western Australia. He was educated at Nels ...

and Lieutenant General

David Morrison Lieutenant General David Lindsay Morrison (born 24 May 1956) is a retired senior officer of the Australian Army. He served as Chief of Army from June 2011 until his retirement in May 2015. He was named Australian of the Year for 2016. Early ...

. The Male Champions of Change have released progress reports in 2011, 2013 and 2014. They also partnered with Chief Executive Women to develop a model for leaders to use in order to examine their own actions and 'Leadership Shadow'. In 2014, Broderick published a fourth and final report on gender-discriminatory practices in the

Australian Defence Force The Australian Defence Force (ADF) is the military organisation responsible for the defence of the Commonwealth of Australia and its national interests. It consists of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), Australian Army, Royal Australian Air Forc ...

. Broderick finished up as Sex Discrimination Commissioner in 2015 and was succeeded by

Kate Jenkins Kate Jenkins (born 1968) has been the Sex Discrimination Commissioner at the Australian Human Rights Commission since 2016. Previously, she was Commissioner at the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission. Jenkins is also on th ...

United Nations Rapporteur

Broderick established her own consultancy specialising in gender equality and was then appointed by the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...

as a Special Rapporteur for the Working Group on Discrimination against Women and Girls in 2017. She works alongside four other female experts to report to the

Human Rights Council The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), CDH is a United Nations body whose mission is to promote and protect human rights around the world. The Council has 47 members elected for staggered three-year terms on a regional group basis. ...

in Geneva on discrimination against women around the world. In 2018, Broderick launched Male Champions of Change globally.

Awards

Broderick won in the Diversity category as well as recognized as the overall winner in the 2014 Women of Influence award. She was also an Impact 25 winner in 2015. On November, 2015, the

University of New South Wales The University of New South Wales (UNSW), also known as UNSW Sydney, is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It is one of the founding members of Group of Eight, a coalition of Australian research-intensive ...

-Sydney conferred upon her an honorary degree honorary Doctorate of Laws for her "eminent service to both the Australian and international community”. In 2016, she was awarded the New South Wales

Australian of the Year The Australian of the Year is a national award conferred on an Australian citizen by the National Australia Day Council, a not-for-profit Australian Governmentowned social enterprise. Similar awards are also conferred at the State and Territo ...

for her being a "powerful and influential voice in the struggle for gender equality enlisting both women and men as agents of change." She received the Australian Award for Excellence in Women's Leadership from the Women & Leadership Australia on the same year, and won the 2016 Hall of Fame during the Women's Agenda Leadership Awards. Broderick was appointed Officer of the

Order of Australia The Order of Australia is an honour that recognises Australian citizens and other persons for outstanding achievement and service. It was established on 14 February 1975 by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on the advice of the Australian Gove ...

in 2017.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Broderick, Elizabeth Living people Australian women lawyers Officers of the Order of Australia University of Technology Sydney alumni Year of birth missing (living people) United Nations special rapporteurs Australian feminists 20th-century Australian lawyers 21st-century Australian lawyers