About the AWF

The Academic Women's Forum (AWF) is a group of academic women who meet twice a year to share information, ideas, and make contacts across the University.

We hold workshops and other forums on special themes (such as promotion and building track records) and pursue action through official channels on topics of concern to academic women.

We also discuss issues of interest or concern to academic women, including conditions of service, workloads, research, representation within the University, how to manage interrupted careers, and how gender influences university culture.

We are also committed to interaction on common themes with members of the general staff, in particular, the Women's Professional Development Network.

Our history

Predecessors of AWF formed in the late 1970s or early 1980s, mobilizing around a review of the position of women at the University of Adelaide and the establishment of the Women's Studies Research Centre in 1983. Since then, AWF has continued to meet regularly and take action in a number of arenas, most notably:

• instituting the promotion forum, now held in collaboration with HR
• contributing to the workplace compliance reports and other University projects and documents on equity matters
• lobbying for the appointment of an Equity Officer following the elimination of the office and position in the late 1990s.