Elizabeth Broderick AO is an Australian lawyer, who was the Australian Sex Discrimination Commissioner for over eight years from 2007 to 2015 and has been a United Nations special rapporteur for Discrimination against Women and Girls since 2017. She is a former partner and head of legal technology at Ashurst Australia (then called Blake Dawson Waldron), a global commercial law firm.
Broderick grew up in Caringbah, New South Wales as the daughter of a doctor and physiotherapist, Frank and Margot. She has two sisters including an identical twin, emeritus Professor Jane Latimer AO, [1] [2] and Carolyn Broderick. [3] Elizabeth Broderick was head girl in 1978 at Meriden School, Strathfield while Jane Latimer was head girl at MLC School in neighbouring Burwood in the same year. [3]
Broderick is trained as a lawyer. She has spoken publicly about her own experiences of sexual harassment by a client as a young lawyer. [4]
At law firm Blake Dawson Waldron (now Ashurst), Broderick worked part-time for twelve years while she was a partner - the first partner at the firm to work part-time. [5] She also created a database giving people legal advice at low cost. Broderick was named "Telstra NSW Business Woman of the Year" (2000–2001). [3]
Broderick was appointed Sex Discrimination Commissioner by Prime Minister John Howard in 2007. Her term was extended by the Rudd government and again by the Abbott government. [2] As Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Broderick worked on equal-pay cases, "proposed a model for the paid parental leave scheme", and commented publicly on sexual harassment cases. [3]
Broderick persuaded some of "the most powerful men in the country" to publicly commit to being part of a group called Male Champions of Change (MCC) and take action on gender inequality. [4] The group is still active and has inspired the creation of many MCC groups in other sectors, including architecture, [6] property, [7] elite sports [8] and in Victoria. [9] Current members of the Founding MCC group include, Alan Joyce, Kevin McCann, Martin Parkinson, David Thodey and Lieutenant General David Morrison. [10]
The Male Champions of Change have released progress reports in 2011, [11] 2013 [12] and 2014. [13] They also partnered with Chief Executive Women to develop a model for leaders to use in order to examine their own actions and "Leadership Shadow". [14]
In 2014, Broderick published a fourth and final report on gender-discriminatory practices in the Australian Defence Force. [15]
Broderick finished up as Sex Discrimination Commissioner in 2015 and was succeeded by Kate Jenkins. [2] [16] [17]
Broderick established her own consultancy specialising in gender equality and was then appointed by the United Nations as a Special Rapporteur for the Working Group on Discrimination against Women and Girls in 2017. [2] She works alongside four other female experts to report to the Human Rights Council in Geneva on discrimination against women around the world. [2] She served until 2023 and she was succeeded by the American law professor Claudia Flores. [18]
In 2018, Broderick launched Male Champions of Change globally. [2]