The Victorian Women’s Trust has consistently been a proud supporter of putting women’s voices on the public record since we started way back in 1985.
Throughout our time as a leading advocate for women, we noticed there seemed to be a lack of media coverage and conversations around issues unique to the lives of women, all around Australia. For us, this wasn’t good enough, so we came up with a solution.
We developed a online platform for showcasing women’s voices about these issues and it went by the name of Sheilas. Running since July 2012, Sheilas was the Trust’s answer to providing high quality commentary on issues of the day, with a focus on those which matter most to women, and that mainstream media outlets often ignore. Sheilas was seen as being free from the constraints of a knee-jerk 24-hour news cycle so all articles published were to be informative, thoughtful and engaging.
Now, the time has come for Sheilas as we know it, to end. But in a lot of ways, it’s a new beginning.
With the redesign and revamp of our Victorian Women’s Trust (VWT) site, and with this magnificent blog platform, we can take the best of Sheilas and make it even more accessible. To do this, and stay connected to the work of emerging and established feminist writers, you can sign up to our VWT newsletter.
We send out emails every week of so. Inside, you’ll find contributor pieces (as featured on this blog) from your favourite Sheilas writers, interviews with leading feminists, and news from VWT. Plus, all the usual giveaways and prizes!
Since it’s inception in 2012, Sheilas has seen an incredible four years. Our contributor list is significant and varied, including big names such as Kerry-Anne Walsh, Angela Pippos, Celeste Liddle, Ruby Hamad and Clementine Ford.
For those that received our monthly Sheilas newsletters, this will now morph into our VWT blog – so to stay in the loop, we encourage everyone who was a Sheilas subscribers to sign up to our VWT newsletter, As of October 26, we will no longer be sending Sheilas newsletters, so don’t forget to make the switch!
If you aren’t familiar with Sheilas, and but want to join in the fun of receiving weekly inboxes of goodies and great content – you can sign up as well!
As we bid farewell to Sheilas, we acknowledge all the contributors and editors over the last four years who have made the publication what it is. We thank each and every one for shining a light on brilliant feminist content. A very special thank you in particular to Judy Horacek for her continuous, inspiring, heart-warming and reflective cartoons that have been featured in every single Sheilas edition without fail (and her special Sheilas goodbye above!).
To our fabulous Sheilas readers – we wouldn’t be where we are today without your support. We hope you’ll join us for the next stage of Sheilas, and the Victorian Women’s Trust.