The Edna Ryan Awards celebrate women who contribute to improving the lives of womEn and girls
Women who persist, strive, advocate and fight to make a feminist difference.
Women who are often unsung and unrecognised.
The Edna Ryan Awards are named in honour of a woman who fought valiantly for equal pay and equal rights for women.
The fight continues and so do these awards.
You are invited to the Edna Ryan Awards 2021
The Edna Ryan Awards 2021 will be celebrated on Friday November 5th at 6:30pm.
The Edna Awards Review Panel has awarded 28 feminist sisters from a very strong field of applications. Join us to celebrate these recipients across 6 categories as well as the Grand Stirrer – the award for “inciting others to challenge the status quo” – which this year has been given to Brittany Higgins. Brittany Higgins will share her thoughts with us.
The format of the Awards will be changed to reflect the times we find ourselves in. Instead of the previous face to face Award nights where each awardee is given 5 minutes to speak, we will host ‘Feminist Conversations’ from February 2022 where awardees will be invited to speak in panel discussions with others in their categories.
It is now time to applaud these women who have kept the the feminist legacy of Edna Ryan alive. So please book your tickets and take some time to celebrate with us after what has been a tumultuous year for feminists.
“Only when a society values distributive justice and multi-vocality, will the voices of its entire people be free. Only then will it be safe for each of us to add our narrative to the dominant social and political discourse. Only then will our country be equipped to engage in a fair and diverse feminist debate which has the potential to empower all.”
“I have always known that as a woman I would need to work harder than my male counterparts to be seen as an equal, and I have made it my life’s work to do just that. It is important that we show the future generations of women that we can forge success in the face of oppression and sexism. We need to always remember that we are valuable, powerful, and we should never doubt ourselves.”
Erin Wen Ai Chew
Entrepeneur, social activist, founder of the Asian Australian Alliance
Past AWARd recipients
fEMPOWER | Grand Stirrer
The Grand Stirrer Award. For inciting others to challenge the status quo.
Helen L’Orange | Leadership
For leading feminist changes in the public sphere.
Mary O’Sullivan | Community Activism
For feminist activity in the community.
Marilyn Hatton | Leadership
For leading feminist changes in the public sphere.
Deborah Brennan | Education
For a special contribution to the education of women and girls.
Pearlie McNeill | Arts
For creative feminism.
Margot Oliver | Media
For consistent promotion of feminist perspectives in the media.
Leonie McGuire | Community Activism
For feminist activity in the community.
Lee Lewis | Arts
For creative feminism.
“Pinch me, it’s a miracle handed out on my birthday. It could have been decided years and years ago. We’d given up hope, and now, bang, here it is in writing,”
– Edna Ryan, aged 68, writing in her diary after the National Wage Case decision in 1972 that gave one and a half million women equal pay with men.
Quick Links
Reach Us
Older Women’s Network NSW
8-10 Victoria Street,
Newtown NSW 2042, Australia.
+61 – 2 – 9519 8044
We acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which we work and live, and we pay our respects to Elders past and present.
We acknowledge the sorrow of the Stolen Generations and the impacts of colonisation on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Edna Ryan Awards supports the Uluru Statement from the Heart, the call for a First Nation's Voice enshrined in the Australian Constitution and a Makarrata Commission to oversee agreement-making and truth-telling.