Celebrating International Women’s Day with an Exciting New Look

Why did we want a new look?

A lot has happened since WiSPP was launched in 2014. Our website desperately needed an upgrade to reflect our evolving identity and do justice to our work and the fabulous team of volunteers that make up the WiSPP collective. 

We want the website to reflect our fundamental commitment to equity in science, recognising that gender is just one axis of discrimination. We need to do better to break down the barriers of colonialism, racism, homophobia and ablism too.

What did we do?

The upgrade journey began in early 2020 (before 2020 became what we now know as 2020) with a meeting with Edison Agency’s Amber Bonney and Liz Archer at their stylish offices in South Melbourne.  

After breathlessly talking for longer than the allocated hour and bamboozling Amber and Liz with the facts and figures on women in medical research, Amber, impressed by our demonstrable passion took WiSPP on as a pro bono project. 

In the following months, we were taken on a wonderful learning journey of the science behind brand positioning and identity. While the journey is not completely over, we hope that the new look better tells our story and helps you to understand who we are and what we do. Above all, we hope that the website reflects our passion for working together to create a culture where more people can thrive in science.

We were extremely grateful for the opportunity to work with Edison. We would also like to acknowledge the brilliant Molly Patton, Creative Director of Patton’d Studios who has done an amazing job developing our website.

We are thrilled by our new look and excited to share it with you.

Why now?

The 2021 theme for International Women’s Day, “Women in leadership: Achieving an equal future in a COVID-19 world”, perfectly fits the challenge WiSPP faces – the persistent underrepresentation of women in senior leadership despite their dominant numbers at lower levels. The COVID-19 response has drawn on the depth of knowledge and expertise of scientists in the Parkville precinct and beyond. It has also laid bare the inequities that make a career in science so perilous, including funding uncertainty, caring responsibilities and insecure employment.

International Women’s Day is a day for all individuals and organisations to reaffirm their commitment to gender equity. With the well documented gendered impact of COVID-19, a commitment to an equal future is needed now more than ever. 

On this International Women’s Day, WiSPP reaffirms our commitment to work collectively to advance gender equity and diversity in science, forging a culture where more people can thrive.