In fact, ACT residents were under all female leadership for much of 2012 and 2013, with Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Governor General Quentin Bryce and Chief Minister Katy Gallagher in the top positions.

But the fight for women’s rights in this country is far from over. In recent years it has become more apparent than ever that a lot of work still has to be done to ensure that all Australian women are given the opportunities to feel safe in their homes and workplaces, to meaningfully contribute to society and to rise to leadership positions.

The confronting truth is that one in three women in Australia will experience violence in their lifetime, a woman in Australia will earn, on average, 17 per cent less in her lifetime than a man, and only 12 per cent of the Australian Securities Exchange’s 200 directorships are filled by women.

“Sadly we haven’t nailed this gender equality thing anywhere yet in Australia,” Australian National Committee for UN Women executive director Julie McKay says.

“In Australia we often think that this stuff is done. We kind of go ‘Oh yes, tick tick tick, we have these rights’. What you see at a global level [at the UN] is that we’re actually fighting just to maintain the rights that we think we have.”

The Australian National Committee for UN Women is one of 18 global national committees for UN Women, working tirelessly to improve the lot of women in Australia and around the world. McKay explains that the organisation uses fundraising, awareness-raising and advocacy to focus on three areas of improvement: economic security, leadership, and violence against women.

“Economic security means looking at women’s access to economic opportunity and decent work,” she says.

“In Australia it manifests as access to childcare, superannuation and equal employment, but globally it looks like ‘How do we get women basic access to jobs, how do make it safe for women to get to work and to be at work?’”

When it comes to leadership, the organisation is focused on getting women into leadership roles in the business community and the government, which has become a fairly controversial topic in recent years, particularly when it comes to the federal government.

“We are strong advocates for temporary special measures, or quotas, as one way to do that, which is always an interesting battle to fight in Australia,” McKay says.

Violence against women is the third and possibly most crucial area in which UN Women works – it is still widespread and often not talked about in Australia.

“I have a fairly strong view that if you have women experiencing violence in their homes or their workplaces they’re not going to be able to contribute as equal partners to development, to the economy, to society,” McKay says.

“So UN Women does a lot of work in all of the program countries where it operates to eliminate violence. In Australia our role is to raise awareness and get people to understand what the stats actually mean.”

A big part of UN Women’s work involves travelling overseas to ensure that Australia’s goals on gender equality are in line with the goals of other UN member states.

McKay has just returned from one of the organisation’s biggest gatherings, the UN Commission on the Status of Women, a discussion held annually at UN headquarters in New York City and attended by delegates from all UN member states. It’s an important event, and a chance for McKay to see how an organisation like the UN gets things done.

“The UN works in a way that is essentially about soft power,” she explains.

“It’s not about invading each other, it’s about saying what do we all aspire to, and what can we all agree on? So in the women’s space this is about having a discussion with all member states of the UN about what is it that we’re building on, what can we get to and where we want to be.”

The 2014 commission saw member states acknowledging the progress that has been made since the event began in 1989, but looked at the massive gender gaps that still exist worldwide. Countries that fundamentally disagree with each other on the topic of women’s rights had to come to a consensus to make a plan for the future.

Australia’s presence was absolutely crucial at the commission and as world leaders in the fight for women’s rights we were instrumental in setting goals that all countries should be striving for.

“I was incredibly proud to be Australian,” McKay says.

“Our government led an incredibly courageous agenda and spoke on issues that I wasn’t expecting Australia to speak on. They advocated on behalf of women with disabilities, indigenous women, women from lesbian/gay/transgender communities, and really made a point of saying that these are important rights that we haven’t as a global community afforded to all women yet.”

2014 has been an incredibly busy year for McKay. Before she had even returned from the commission in New York, it was announced that she had been appointed to a brand-new role to tackle on top of her UN Women duties: the first ever gender adviser to the chief of the Australia Defence Force.

“Essentially my role will be to support the chief’s vision of what the next steps need to be for gender equality,” McKay says.

“Defence is one of the biggest employers in Australia, so ensuring that women have opportunities for meaningful, valuable careers in the defence force is critical to Australia.”

Although the male-dominated culture of the Australian Defence Force has become somewhat infamous in recent years, McKay says that they have already made major changes and are serious about gender equality.

“It’s a really big step to bring on a gender adviser. It’s not something they’ve ever done. I think it’s an acknowledgement that they’ve made progress, but that there’s still more to do,” she says.

McKay and her UN Women colleagues across Australia and the world have a big job ahead of them. Although it can seem a little daunting at times, the little victories along the way make it all worth it.

“The bits I love about my job are meeting women and hearing the stories of their own leadership journeys to wherever they’ve chosen to be,” McKay says.

“I’m constantly amazed when I talk to women in the Solomon Islands, or women in Papua New Guinea, who have just overcome the most horrific things and are now wanting to be community leaders and give back to their communities.”

Anyone interested in supporting the work of UN Women can visit unwomen.org.au to get involved or make a donation.