Australian Services Union organiser Julie Kun outlined the ASU's campaign for pay equity at an International Women's Day meeting organised by the Anatolian Cultural Centre and the Socialist Alliance on March 14.
The campaign aims to bring the wages of workers in female-dominated community services industries up to the level of those in male-dominated industries.
Kun said the equal pay test case now before Fair Work Australia was "the single most important campaign for women's economic justice since the 'Equal Pay for Equal Work' campaign was won in 1969".
She said women won the right to equal pay, but this was interpreted in the narrowest sense to mean equal pay for equal work.
"Australia has one of the most sex-segregated workforces in the developed world. As such, industries that employ mostly female workers (such as social workers, nurses and teachers) are not valued in the same way as industries which employ mostly male workers, even though they may have comparable qualifications and skills."
Kun said workers in industries dominated by women tend not be unionised.
The ASU's campaign aims to go some way to addressing the gender wage gap: on average women are still paid 17% less than men.
However, Kun said it was important the government fully fund the pay equity wage increase, to ensure that community and welfare organisations don't reduce staff numbers or resources to pay for it.
Other speakers included local Indigenous activist Sharon Firebrace, Turkish community domestic violence worker Gul Ozluk and Socialist Alliance activist Kimberly Yu.
Ozluk said one in two women in Australia were affected by domestic violence, but only 36% of women who experience physical assault report it.
"The situation is even worse for women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, who often face very difficult circumstances when escaping family violence", she said.
They often encounter language difficulties, xenophobic community attitudes, fears about immigration and residency status as well as physical and cultural isolation. They are less likely to have access to mainstream services that could assist them to leave an abusive partner.
Yu spoke about the unfinished struggle for women's right to abortion. The audience was horrified by the case of a young Cairns couple who face criminal charges and jail terms for procuring an abortion.