In 2026, the Chief Executive Women Annual Dinners were held in Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane and Sydney. CEW President, Helen Conway AO, reflects on her own experience as a scholarship recipient and emphasises the strength of the CEW community in driving systemic change. It also calls attention to current challenges to gender equality and urges continued commitment to bold, collective action moving forward.
You can read the full written version of Helen Conway’s address below.
Good evening, everyone. Thanks so much for joining us tonight.
I acknowledge our First Nations leaders, past, present, and emerging, and note that CEW walks proudly with our First Nations people on their journey to justice and reconciliation.
It’s a great privilege to lead CEW as we enter our fifth decade and, as President, to stand before a room like this one, knowing that every person here shares a commitment to building a more gender equal Australia.
When I was thinking about what I would say this evening, I kept coming back to my own history with this organisation. This event celebrates and raises funds for CEW scholarships. I know firsthand just how pivotal these scholarships can be. As many of you may know, I was the very first CEW scholarship winner. That scholarship changed my career. And, given that tonight's theme is "Create," it feels fitting to share how that scholarship gave me the freedom to do exactly that. It created a new world for me. It set me up to be creative, to pursue different kinds of challenges across different sectors and different kinds of leadership. It gave me the confidence to set up the Workplace Gender Equality Agency for the Federal Government and be very creative to secure the future of the Agency when its existence came under threat. My current focus on the not-for-profit sector is enabling me to contribute to creating better capability in that sector. This is what the CEW scholarship made possible for me.
My story is not exceptional. Hundreds of women have benefited from CEW's scholarships and programs since then. Each with her own version of that experience. Each taking what CEW gave her and creating something with it in her own way. These scholarships and programs provide tremendous opportunity. A single scholarship or a single program can redirect the course of a woman's career.
When I look around this room, what I see is the power of the CEW community. Our founders whose vision inspired the organisation we have today. Our past Presidents and directors who have stewarded the organisation over the years. Our current directors and committee members who continue to guide the organisation. Our members who now number over 1400. And, of course, our very valued sponsors and partners. We have terrific allies who champion CEW’s work within their own organisations and networks. This community is CEW's greatest strength. It always has been. And it is reflected in this room tonight.
CEW exists to change what leadership looks like in this country. To ensure that the barriers women face are identified and removed. We do that through our advocacy, our research, our programs, our scholarships, and through the collective influence of our members. That purpose has guided this organisation for four decades, and it continues to guide us today.
The transformation CEW has achieved over the decades, both the systemic shifts and the individual achievements, would not have been possible without the support of the people in this room. Progress doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It happens because of the partnerships CEW has built, the trust we have earned, and the sustained commitment of a community that believes in this work.
Today, we find ourselves at a critical juncture. The progress we’ve secured over 40 years is under threat of being rolled back. Efforts aimed at making our workplaces and institutions more equal are being questioned, both here in Australia and around the world. The qualities that define women's leadership, such as care and collaboration, are being treated as weaknesses rather than recognised as the strengths they are.
CEW has never retreated from these challenges. For 40 years, this organisation has met every challenge with evidence, with determination, and with the collective weight of a community that refuses to accept the status quo. And that’s what will carry us forward.
The past 40 years have been a remarkable story of progress. But the next chapter will ask a lot more of us. CEW must be a contemporary organisation that meets the current challenges in front of us, both domestically and globally. We must be ambitious, active, inclusive and bold in how we respond. That is the commitment I’m making as President. And it’s a commitment this organisation is ready to deliver on.
A more gender equal Australia is a stronger Australia. A more productive Australia. A fairer Australia. And when this community comes together with purpose, as it has tonight, we have the power to create it.
Thanks for your commitment to this work. Thanks for being part of what CEW is building.