Federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner Pru Goward will deliver a free public address entitled 'What women research and what we need to know', at CQU Rockhampton from 12.30pm on Wednesday, October 11.

High school and university students, interested community members and university staff are encouraged to attend this event presented by CQU Women in Research.

Bookings for the talk and for the optional luncheon afterwards (for which a charge of $12 applies) can be made via Rebeka Freckleton on 4930 9493, or r.freckleton@cqu.edu.au or at CQU building 18G.04.

Pru Goward became federal Sex Discrimination Commissioner in July 2001. Following the introduction of the Age Discrimination Act in 2004, she was also appointed Commissioner Responsible for Age Discrimination.

Commissioner Goward is an economist by training and a broadcaster by practice, having spent 19 years with ABC TV and Radio as a current affairs journalist and later as a political reporter and commentator.

She is best known for her efforts to promote a national scheme of paid maternity leave and a better balance of work and family.

Commissioner Goward is considered by both \'The Australian\' and the \'Australian Financial Review\' newspapers to be one of our most influential Australians, her speeches and columns are widely reproduced in journals and books and in 2001 she was awarded a Centenary Medal for services to journalism and women\'s rights.

She has also co-written a biography of Prime Minister John Howard with her husband David Barnett and \'A Business of Your Own\', a study of successful women in business. Commissioner Goward is also Chair of the Council for Australian Arab Relations, chair of the Advisory Panel for the Marketing in Australia of Infant Formula and patron of the ANU’s aussie rules football club. She has three daughters.