Why workhers matters…
On 2 May 2026, PhD candidate Afrouz Shoghi hosted an event at the Mudgeeraba Community Centre, championing her initiative “Workhers” which seeks to empower working mothers re-entering or persevering with or planning to re-enter, their workplaces. It was a unique project, and with so many of our Division 9 households being families, I thought it was important to support.
Here’s my opening remarks at the event;
I was a bit intimidated when i heard i was to address a room-full of powerful women, so i made notes. I’m married to a powerful woman, and she often recommends I write important things down if i need to remember them..
They say it takes a village to raise a child… but I’d say it takes a village to do anything of substance. This idea that we seem to have to, or must, achieve some objective alone, or without assistance from anyone is super flawed, and the only way we challenge idea that is to bring people together who can help us realise there’s a better way.
My first reason for supporting this event is that I hope you’ll get a good dose of that sort of talk today; the idea that helping one another and working together on our challenging circumstances in life, is important to our local area, and to the priorities of my office.
Secondly, women bring a critical perspective to work. I’ve been stoked to have a variety of epic women work in my office over time who also raise children. Shout out to Bianca for her help today and to Courtney for originating the idea. Finding ways to re-shape the workplaces perspective on women, underwritten by a bloke (at least underwritten to some extent), has deep value for our community. Frankly, in some workplaces (and maybe family homes) I think there’s a perspective that women’s economic contribution is somehow tainted by the priorities of parenting, and I think that’s rubbish. As a dad whose been heavily involved in the development and care of my children from a young age, I’ve found the perspectives I’ve gained through navigating parenting challenges make me a better problem solver, a more resilient contributor and leader, and frankly a better parent role model for my own kids (which has its own economic output, when you start to really think about it).
So reason number 2 for supporting this event is that I want to support initiatives that tell women their contribution matters, no matter where it is (family, workplace, community), because it does. More empowered humans in our community, particularly women (who are, more often than men, dis-empowered), make our community stronger, more innovative and more resilient.
Finally, I love when we take a community gathering, and add some science. Afrouz is undertaking some important research on this topic and I love getting behind initiatives that involve academic research using our community as a case study. I think our community likes be a catalyst for change, or even just a catalyst for gathering knowledge, in a formal sense. We also like cake and having a good chat so now seems perfectly suitable to thank Yula for her delicious afternoon tea. No doubt theres some science behind why her red velvet cupcakes make my mouth water, but that science will have to be for another day.
Seriously though, the third reason for supporting this event is that bringing a scientific backing to making our community and it’s people stronger and more resilient just floats my boat.
Thanks for being a part of this first ever gathering of this type. I hope it’s not the last and I hope you suck the marrow out of the speakers content and find something that resonates with you to make you a better leader in your workplace or business, and also a stronger advocate for and parent of your kids.
Many thanks for your support of Nurtured Village today (another great initiative we’re proud to support).
If you’ve got any council issues or want to catch up on other matters you can catch me on Facebook or insta @glennonthegc, or on LinkedIn. You can even write me a standard letter and post it, or pick up the phone. I’m really excited to hear about where today takes you or inspires you to apply yourself as the coming months pass. Hope you enjoy the event today.
