About BPW
Our Origin Story
BPW Moreton Bay was born out of a small group of local Caboolture businesswomen led by Joy Leishman and Mary Dare in 1988. These women were already members of and attending functions and meetings run by the BPW Brisbane Chapter. A long way to drive for some networking, and with a then fast-growing Caboolture region, it only made sense to start a women’s networking group here.
In the early days, the majority of the club’s foundation members came from Caboolture Toastmasters. Toastmasters was chartered two years prior, originally formed by members of the Hayes St Child Care Committee, the first child care centre in Caboolture.
Like the local region, BPW Caboolture grew a lot over the past three and a half decades supporting and being supported by many local community groups, businesses and Government.
To better serve and support women across the City of Moreton Bay, BPW Caboolture recently merged with BPW North Lakes, combining forces to build a stronger business community, creating what is now BPW Moreton Bay!
The Impact Of BPW
The impact of Business and Professional Women (BPW) at a local level, Nationally and Internationally spans much further than just mere financial aid and sponsorship. BPW as a whole is passionate about supporting and advocating for women’s issues the world over including causes like:
At each level of this powerful organisation, there’s impact being made to help improve conditions and opportunities for women from all walks of life.
Local Impact
At our Moreton Bay Club, we’ve supported many grassroots causes, organisations and programs to contribute to our local community.
InnovatHER
As part of our 2024 International Women’s Day celebrations, we hosted our first ever, InnovatHer Awards night. Of the 20 entrants, 4 finalists were selected to “take the floor” at an awards night dinner where they received immediate feedback from our esteemed judging panel.
This event was created to provide a platform for small women-owned businesses or potential businesses in the City of Moreton Bay to present their ideas and compete for support to accelerate their business growth.
Bursary
The BPW Moreton Bay Bursary (originally BPW Caboolture) goes back, literally decades in the Club’s rich history.
Each year, the Club donates several different bursaries to local female students to support and encourage them in their ongoing studies.
Senior Students | BPW Moreton Bay sources funding through the City of Moreton Bay Discretionary Fund each year, to provide 5 x $200 gift cards to outstanding Business Students from senior schools in the region.
To learn more about the real impact these financial grants have, here’s a letter from Carolyn Rutherford, our 1963 Bursary Recipient who reached out to us in late 2023.
$10,000 UniSC Scholarship | BPW Moreton Bay raised funds through various events to provide a one-off scholarship to a full-time female domestic student enrolled in a Bachelor of Nursing Science at the UniSC Caboolture Campus. The scholarship was inspired by ending gender inequity. The recipient received financial assistance, a complimentary membership to BPW Caboolture, Career Development Guidance and other opportunities.
For more information about getting involved in any of our Bursary programs / opportunities, please reach out to Club Secretary here.
Special Events
There’s almost too many to list! From our International Women’s Day Candlelighting Celebrations, Equal Pay Day to our monthly networking breakfasts – Our members are actively out in the community bringing awareness to some of the most poignant women’s issues as well as promoting leadership and growth within the local business women’s community.
Donations
Other Recent Donations/Sponsorship that our local Club have been involved in include:
- Mini Farms Project – mfp.org.au
- Forgotten Women Project (Any Given Tuesday) –www.theforgottenwomen.org.au
- Miss Teen Galaxy – Sponsorship Caboolture Year 12 Student, Khaira who was a finalist in 2023 – www.australiagalaxypageants.com/teen
- Caboolture Rugby Union Qld – Sponsorship of Senior Women’s Player –cabrugby.org.au/womens-rugby
- The Caboolture Neighborhood Centre
School Chaplains & Scripture Union
In the early 2000’s, one of our club’s major contributions and involvement, stemmed from The Minister’s Fraternal approaching the then Mayor (Joy Leishman) for a community prayer event to support local school Chaplains. Joy suggested the event be a breakfast with all funds raised to go to Scripture Union to assist funding for Chaplains at our local primary schools. Up until then, there had been no funding for Chaplains at schools other than what was raised by local churches and at the time, there were only two Chaplains in the whole of Caboolture and they were not full-time.
After a few years, the Mayors Chaplaincy Support Breakfast became quite well-known across Queensland and was adopted by other Mayors across the state. After the success of having Chaplains in schools both Federal and State governments provided annual funding to Scripture Union for Chaplains. Most schools today have Chaplains and their roles have saved, changed and enhanced the lives of many children and teenagers.
BPW Moreton Bay continues their support for Chaplaincy with members attending various events throughout the year with a focus on fundraising for the Chaplaincy programs.
National Impact
BPW Australia, comprising diverse women from various sectors, holds a 70-year legacy of proactive engagement in women’s affairs. Local clubs have effectively influenced governments by supporting, educating, and lobbying for women’s issues in a fun, collaborative and rewarding way.
Causes (to date) have and continue to include; Paid Parental Leave, Equal Pay, childcare issues, taxation reviews and we are a lead agent of Economic Security 4 Women, an alliance reporting to the Federal Government.
For additional information, more details about BPW Australia can be found at www.bpw.com.au.
International Impact
BPW International has consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and has expert and experienced representatives accredited to most United Nations agencies.
Gender equity is a basic human right, and its achievement brings socio-economic benefits to everyone. By empowering women, the broader community thrives, increasing positive productivity and growth. However, gender inequities are still deeply entrenched in every society. Women in all parts of the world experience discrimination in areas from access to decent work, health care and education to occupational segregation. Women continue to be significantly under-represented in political, social and economic decision-making processes in almost every country in the world, and the growing gender wage gap and domestic violence have become intractable problems.
Causes Supported Globally by BPW International
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