Local Women Leading Change
Supporting Women to Lead in Local Government
Local Women Leading Change supports women who want to become elected officials in local government by providing resources and training to help them stand for council and succeed. The program’s goal is to increase women’s participation and representation in local councils, and it includes resources like the “Local Women Leading Change Election Handbook” and a campaign toolkit to guide potential candidates.
In line with the Victorian Government’s Gender Equality Strategy(link is external), and the Best practice guide to gender equity in local government, our vision is to see 50 per cent women elected as councillors and mayors.
It’s an ambitious goal – one that will require action from women (and men) across the state.
We want to engage communities that have long been disenfranchised and under represented at a local government level.
In 2024, VLGA delivered 48 sessions of gender-based candidate training to 20 councils.
We know that in every part of this state, women play a pivotal role in the leadership of their communities, but this work is often underappreciated and not formally recognised.
We want local councils to look like the communities that they represent – after all, local government is supposed to be the level of government that is closest to the people.
Local government delivers essential services that women access on a daily basis. Women’s connections to their community, their skills and their unique perspectives mean they are rich with potential to be terrific local councillors.
We live in a world where there are local women leading change, and we want to empower them to do it on a larger scale.
In 2024, VLGA delivered 48 sessions of gender-based candidate training to 20 councils.
The Victorian Local Governance Association partnered with the University of Melbourne and La Trobe University to undertake a new research project, ‘Women in Local Government: Understanding Their Political Trajectories’.
Led by Associate Professor Leah Ruppanner (University of Melbourne), Associate Professor Andrea Carson (La Trobe University) and Dr Gosia Mikolajczak (University of Melbourne), this research investigated the chronic under representation of women in Australian politics through a local government lens.
The Australian Research Council (ARC) awarded $227,010 to support the project through its ARC Linkage Project grants program.
The research generated new knowledge about barriers to womens’political representation, their political performance and pathways to higher tiers of elected office. By following men and women councillors across an election cycle, the research compared and measured women’s experiences of local politics to develop a new framework to map and address obstacles preventing political equity.
The Research was the first of its kind in Australia and provided invaluable insights into women’s experiences of local government in Victoria and provided a roadmap to achieving gender equity in elected representative roles. This work helps supports the VLGA’s long-standing commitment to advancing female participation across all levels of government.