International Women’s Day 2026: Balancing the Scales
- Enable & In The Click
- 48 minutes ago
- 2 min read
International Women’s Day is a time to celebrate the achievements of women while recognising the work still needed to achieve true equality.
For Julie McKay, CEO of Enable Social Enterprise, the journey toward leadership has been shaped by decades of change. Julie began her career in the 1980s in a role known as a “Girl Friday,” where women were often expected to support rather than lead.
“In those days the men were the executives and the women were the assistants,” Julie recalls.
While progress has been made—women now represent more than half of professions like law and accounting - leadership roles still lag behind. Today, around 10% of ASX-listed company CEOs are women.
“It shows that there is still a lot of work to do to truly balance the scales,” Julie says.
At Enable Social Enterprise in Broadmeadows, Julie and her team are helping drive change through innovative circular economy solutions. The organisation provides IT asset disposition services to businesses while creating employment and learning opportunities for people who face barriers to work, including young people with disability and women from migrant communities.
Julie believes diverse and inclusive workplaces are key to stronger communities and better solutions.
“When people from different backgrounds come together, we get better outcomes,” she says.
For Julie, International Women’s Day is both a celebration and a call to action. Creating equality means breaking down bias, supporting future leaders, and ensuring women have the opportunity -and the platform - to succeed.
Her message is simple: empower women, recognise their strengths, and let them shine.
As Julie puts it, using a sporting analogy “Kick like a girl. There’s a lot of power in that.”
Watch the full video here:
