Bauer Media is pleased to announce AGL as headline sponsor of The Australian Women’s Weekly Women of the Future (WoTF) awards for 2018.

The Women of the Future campaign celebrates women making a difference to Australia’s future across a variety of industries.

Now in its 6th year, the 2018 Women of the Future awards will once again recognise women aged 18-35 with a business, innovation or charity idea, competing for an overall prize pool of $200,000.

This year’s award categories are Innovation and Technology, Entrepreneur and Business, and Community Health and Charity.

The 2018 judging panel includes returning judges The Hon. Julie Bishop; MP, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Ita Buttrose, Lisa Wilkinson and The Australian Women’s Weekly Editor in Chief Nicole Byers.

As well as new judges Tanya Plibersek, Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Shadow Minister for Education and Training Shadow Minister for Women, Lisa Harrington; Executive General Manager, Stakeholder Relations, AGL and Ronni Kahn; founder and CEO, OzHarvest Australia.

The partnership with Women of the Future is an extension of AGL’s commitment to gender equality, whilst the 2018 Awards play a paramount role in Bauer Media’s overarching Female Futures initiative.

Australian Women’s Weekly editor in chief Nicole Byers said, “We couldn’t be more thrilled to partner with AGL on the Women of the Future initiative.

“These awards showcase The Weekly’s long-standing engagement to support and promote the leaders of tomorrow, and with AGL’s work to create a future of equality, the partnership makes perfect sense. We’re also very pleased to welcome Tanya, Lisa and Ronni to the judging panel.”

AGL’s focus on driving a brighter future for women through various gender equality initiatives has been anchored by its commitment to place women in 40 per cent of senior leadership roles this financial year – a goal they’ve reached.

AGL also has an employee network that champions equality in the workplace, a mentoring program to prepare female leaders for senior roles, as well as offering support internally and externally to victims of family and domestic violence.

AGL general manager product & marketing, Alison Wild said, “AGL is leading the way in employment equality, and whilst 41 per cent of all of our senior leadership roles are filled by women, there is still work to do.

“Australian Women’s Weekly’s Women of the Future is a fantastic recognition of the younger female generation’s innovation, so AGL could not be more pleased to be a collaborator with this prestigious program.”

The Australian Women’s Weekly’s Women of the Future initiative follows the announcement of Bauer’s Female Futures strategy in February and will contribute to the Bauer wide promise to deliver 10 Million Words across its brands by 2019.

Nominations for The Australian Women’s Weekly’s Women of the Future Awards were announced in the June 2018 issue, on sale now.

B&T is making its own effort to foster a level playing field for men and women in media, which why we created Changing the Ratio, a homegrown, completely Aussie event to drive equality, diversity and inclusion within our industry and beyond.

We’ve got an amazing speaker line-up – including Lisa Wilkinson and Deng Adut – and attendees will walk away with practical tools, case studies and things to do right now within their own organisations to drive diversity, equality and inclusion.

Because not all unequally paid women will receive backpay.