Published: 10 March 2023
Last updated: 5 March 2024
An annual program, which celebrates women’s resilience, passion and spirit, aims to be a safe space for difficult topics. PAULA TOWERS reports.
A martial arts devotee, a former Miss Universe contestant and a fashion editor are among a diverse array of women who will share their insights into resilience at the Women of Worth (WOW) program at Sydney’s Great Synagogue on Sunday.
WOW recognises the resilience, passion and spirit of women, and brings together women from different backgrounds, traditions and life situations, to explore roles and obstacles faced throughout life.
The full-day program includes 13 presenters in a variety of panel discussions, demonstrations of exercise and Krav Maga [the martial art developed for the Israel Defense Forces] for a “She Fights Back" presentation, live jazz, plus New York-based singer Miriam Waks/Mimi Larue, who will help attendees to “Find Your Voice”.
Aligned with International Women’s Day celebrations, this is the third time WOW has been held since 2018, having been paused during Covid.
Topics include Finance and Freedom, Frenemies & Friendship, Finding My Belonging, and Fashion & Fearlessness.
The latter subject explores how we use what we wear to empower ourselves in our own eyes – and those of others – by putting certain items on or taking them off.
Facilitator Shirli Kirschner, co-founder and COA of tech startup Elker - a platform that creates safe spaces for people to discuss sensitive issues - told The Jewish Independent: “The thing that is fascinating about this topic is when we wear these things or take them off – [it’s] either to belong or to make us blend in, to hide or to reveal something.”
Some are symbols of higher authorities, she says. “In the case of a nun’s habit, to God, and in the case of the police uniform, the State; they make us something other than human and equal.”
Kirschner also wants to further explore how the ways we present our perceived selves – through clothing – reflect and shape our inner world. “Judges are a good example; when you’re a judge and you robe and everyone else in court are unrobed and bow before you – how does that shape your version of you?”
Of course, a wig forms part of a judge’s "uniform" and this segues nicely into the issue of the wearing of a burqa or sheitel. “I have a colleague who wears a burqa and she says it’s because it makes her feel like a spiritual being, not a sexual being,” Kirschner says.
“But others in her workplace would prefer her not to wear it because they believe it’s a symbol of male subversion. What’s fascinating is how putting on or off the burqa can signal different things to different people. It could be political or religious, or about modesty, depending on who you ask."
"It’s a safe space so there are tricky topics and questions wanting answering. It’s putting a pause button on their busy lives and is a chance to chill out with women."
Caroline Lewis
One panellist, Nikki Kinstlinger Lowe, was raised in rural NSW, went to the “big smoke” and became a fashion editor. Amid this she discovered Judaism, undertook an Orthodox conversion and now wears a sheitel. Kirschner is hoping to explore individual choices such as these. “How does wearing that make her feel? And how do others look at her?”
A second panellist, Jordi Levin, was a finalist in Miss Universe Australia in 2021. Kirshner is interested in how that experience impacts “what she does and doesn’t wear, and who she is”.
The third panellist swapped a hard suit for soft clothing. Caroline Lewis, who created WOW in her previous role as vice president of The Great Synagogue Board, describes herself as formerly “a power-suited juggernaut agency executive for 25 years”.
Lewis emphasises how she “worked doubly hard to be as good, then doubled that to be doubly better than the men around me. The way I dressed and made up was my armour.”
In her new calling as a life coach for adolescents, the way she dresses now reflects her new self-image. “I wear the colours I love, that reflect the mood I am in, the message I want to send – of new confidence and approachability. I have much fewer ‘masks', I wear much more casual, less ’threatening' clothing.”
Kirschner wants to focus on how that journey “has been represented and tracked through clothing”.
As Lewis puts it: “All I ever wanted is for more women to get together casually, have informative or challenging discussions, learn about their bodies, their rights, [and] the incredible stories of ordinary women doing extraordinary things right here in our community.
“I don’t believe there’s another event like it,” Lewis believes. “It’s a ’safe space’ so there are tricky topics and questions wanting answering. People should attend because it’s putting a pause button on their busy lives and a chance to chill out with women.
“I’m thrilled, too, that my two daughters will be attending and I encourage women to bring their daughters and mothers for this wonderful, cross-generational day.”
