From 2016 to 2019, the One Woman Project team took our message of gender equity to communities and schools across rural Queensland.
From visiting communities in Roma, Surat, and Injune in 2016, to the Wide Bay Burnett region in 2017, to 5,000 kilometres, three Roadtrips, and fourteen schools in 2018, to visiting Gatton in 2019, the One Woman Project Rural Roadtrip program grew over four years.
The Rural Roadtrip was an opportunity for young people in rural, regional, and remote areas of Queensland to have the same access to quality gender education as their counterparts in the metropolitan centres. The week-long adventure helped young people from all over Queensland understand the whole picture of gender equity and further promote the One Woman Project's commitment to justice.
Our team of trained and passionate facilitators hosted in-school workshops, community dinners, and local discussion groups, all devoted to educating about gender equity.
Rural Roadtrip was born from our teams passionate about young people, passionate about gender equity, and passionate about the education of rural youth.
We wanted to ensure that rural youth have the same opportunities to be educated about gender as those in the big cities do.
Due to the impacts of COVID, Rural Roadtrips ended in 2020. Since 2020, OWP has been envisioning alternative ways to provide education about gender equity.
“This was a fantastic workshop and I want to thank Renee [One Woman Project Facilitator] for coming and speaking to my class. It has inspired me to take action - I want to ensure my younger sister and brother do not face the same inequalities that I do.”
why a rural road trip
In the 2016 Mission Australia Youth Survey, equity and discrimination were one of the top three most important issues for young people in Australia
We believe that young people across Australia deserve the same access to education about gender
Young people and women in rural, regional and remote Australia are more likely to experience violence than people in metropolitan centres
Rural and remote students have less access to educational services than those in regional and metropolitan areas
Lack of education about gender has been identified as leading to wider inequality in society, and contributing to such societal issues as family violence, pay disparity and violence against women and children
These numbers rose with 51.8% of young women and 22.4% of young men in Queensland experiencing gender inequality and discrimination by the age of 24
In this survey, almost 50% of young women and 20% of young men nationally reported experiencing gender inequality and discrimination by the age of 24
