Hello, and thank you for taking the time to pick up this year’s copy of Women’s Honi. It has been the result of a painstaking effort on the behalf of the editorial team, whose names can be found on the left. I would like to say a huge thank you to all who contributed, made art and edited, your work and contributions make up the heart of this publication. This publication is the result of a collective effort in every way.
In making this publication, I hope we are able to maintain and advance discussions of feminism, anti-colonialism and anti-capitalism on campus and continue the proud history of the Women’s Collective into the future. From discussions of how women are treated in hospitality jobs, to misogyny within religious denominations, to the Matildas and the Labor Government on Women, we hope to provide a snapshot of current feminist discourse, and ideas within our Collective and the feminist movement writ large.
We have a feature on the Colleges, which also covers the recent history of national surveys and the need for more, and more oversight of sexual violence on University campuses. End Rape on Campus (EROC) and Fair Agenda have been laying the groundwork for years, and have run an excellent campaign this year to demand an Independent Taskforce to hold universities to account for sexual violence. The fact that they have managed to push so hard and so effectively for this during such a frigid and opaque process as this year’s Higher Education Accord speaks for itself.
We believe these are important ideas to share, particularly as the campaign against misogyny and sexual violence so often falls to the wayside in activist movements, on and off campus. We have come together to create this publication as a Collective year after year because what women and nonbinary people write and believe about their rights and their history shouldn’t be ignored. It should be celebrated, studied, critiqued and developed upon for the good of our shared movement.
We hope that no matter where you are, whether on stolen Indigenous land in this country or abroad, you can find something within these pages that will inspire you, teach you something new and perhaps even inspire critique in this time of deep and intense change, when the world we live in nonetheless seems to remain still.
In love and solidarity,
Iggy Boyd
2023 Women’s Officer
