The Anna Stewart Memorial Project is back for 2025! This unique opportunity allows AEU women and gender diverse members to spend time in the branch office, gaining hands-on experience in union operations while developing expertise in advocacy for women’s workplace issues.
Some opportunities you may get to experience include:
- Shadowing Union Officers in their day-to-day work
- Assist with union activities, campaigns and policy development
- Preparing website articles
- Researching issues of concern to women and gender diverse people
- Gaining meaningful insight into union organising and learn practical skills to organise your workplace and community
The dates to complete the Anna Stewart Memorial Project can be negotiated to suit your situation, anytime during weeks 6-10 of term 3 for three days. The successful applicant will also be a delegate for the AEU Federal Women’s Conference, on the 19 & 20 September 2025 in Melbourne.
Will you be paid?
Yes! The current Teachers Agreement, School Assistant Agreement and CIT Agreement enable AEU members to access up to 15 days Industrial Leave per year to engage in AEU training. This project would entitle you to access up to 4 days of this leave.
Applications close COB Monday August 4 2025. To apply, complete the online 2025 Anna Stewart Project application form.
If you have any questions or want to know more about the program, please contact Katie Slater. We look forward to hearing from you and welcoming an AEU member into the AEU Office in Term 3.
Who was Anna Stewart?
Anna Stewart was a former journalist and active Victorian union official from 1974 to 1983. Anna died tragically in 1983, aged 35. Her involvement with the union movement began at a time when women workers comprised one third of the paid workforce, but the few industries in which women were employed offered jobs that were poorly paid, lacked job security, flexibility, skills recognition and unpaid maternity leave.
A prime consideration motivating Anna was the need to develop strategies which would address the issues confronting working women and to facilitate the important contribution that women can make to the trade union movement.
With the Federated Furnishing Trades Society of Australia, Anna Stewart successfully spear-headed the first blue collar union campaign for maternity leave award provisions. At the time, Anna was in the late stages of pregnancy with her third child.
Anna Stewart was a foundation member of the ACTU Women’s Committee established in 1977 and worked tirelessly on programs to be incorporated into the Working Women’s Charter.
The influence of Anna’s work is difficult to measure. Many women gained strength and confidence from her example of combining motherhood and a career. During Commission hearings, Anna would either breast feed her young son or seek adjournments to do so, exposing the Commission, employers and the union to the needs of women workers. In addition, Anna secured many conditions for the members she represented and indirectly for all working women, by setting these precedents.
Development of the Anna Stewart Memorial Project
After Anna’s death, a number of her trade union friends and colleagues felt that a project based around the Working Women’s Charter demand for increased involvement in trade unions was immediately relevant to Anna’s memory, and to the needs of the female workforce. This was felt to be particularly appropriate in light of statistics that showed that despite the large numbers of women joining trade unions, women were still under-represented in decision making structures.
The Anna Stewart Memorial Project was thus born, and the inaugural program was co-ordinated by the Municipal Officers Association in Victoria in April 1984.