Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Women's Issues, Julie Bishop has called for women interested in contributing to Australian Government boards to register with the Office for Women's AppointWomen Online Database.
All women who register with AppointWomen will complete a resume to the Office for Women, which provides Australian Government departments with potential nominees for board vacancies.
The Office will search the resumes for candidates meeting identified criteria, and would then submit the resumes to the relevant department for their consideration.
The full text of a Ministerial announcement is pasted below
Talented women who are keen to contribute their skills and knowledge on Australian Government boards are encouraged to register with the new AppointWomen online database.
The Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Women's Issues, the Hon Julie Bishop today announced that the new free and confidential online registration and search service was now up and running.
"AppointWomen is part of the National Strategy for the Increased Participation of Women on Boards, which is supported by State and Territory Governments," Minister Bishop said.
"It will support the efforts of Australian Government departments to identify talented women, with diverse skills and experience, who are actively seeking appointment to boards or other decision-making bodies.
"The Australian Government is committed to increasing the number of women in leadership roles, and AppointWomen will make it easier for women to register their interest, and for departments to find suitable women candidates.
"AppointWomen is an effective, user-friendly and efficient database tool, and already contains more than 1,000 CVs."
The new web-based AppointWomen database has many advantages over the previous paper-based system, including:
- Improved quality and currency of CVs;
- Faster services to both candidates and Australian Government agencies;
- Boards will have access to greater diversity of skills, perspectives and knowledge.
"In addition to AppointWomen registrants, Government departments also have access, through the AppointWomen system, to candidates registered with the privately run Women on Boards.
