“JUST get on with it,” said Helen Conway, the soon-to-be-former director of the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, from which she’ll retire in a week.

This last missile across the bows of stakeholders in the ongoing efforts to make equality a reality was perhaps the one she’s wanted to fire for some time.

The occasion was the annual International Women’s Day Forum at the National Press Club with a preamble from Senator Michaelia Cash, Minister Assisting the PM for Women, and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten, followed by the forum where Virginia Haussegger moderated for speakers Yassmin Abdel-Magied, the Queensland Young Australian of the Year; Julie McKay, executive director of UN Women Australia and Helen Conway.

The UN Fourth World Conference on Women was held in Beijing in 1995 and the document on the aspirations of that conference is a mighty formidable one that is available online and lists the strategic action required in critical areas of concern.

And, no, we’ve not come a long way since then. This year’s International Women’s Day is “Beijing + 20”, saying let’s not wait another 20 years for gender equality. With the pay gap now at 19 per cent and domestic violence on everyone’s radar, let’s just get on with it!