BY XENIA SANUT

The Victorian international women’s conference Future Female is returning, virtually, to Melbourne next week to empower female international students.

Future Female’s convenor Belle Lim said the conference provides female international students with a platform to share their unique experiences.

“There are courses at university, or in the community, that are about skill building and development but they often don’t take into account the complexity of the experience and background of international students,” Ms Lim said.

“When we come here, there is a mental journey that we have to go [through] to adapt to the situation, the culture and the values here in Australia,” she said. 

“A lot of these skills or tips might not be applicable to female international students.”

Ms Lim hopes the conference’s many culturally diverse female attendees will encourage more inspirational women to pursue their professional goals.

“We hear from a lot of attendees who say that... this is the first time that I've seen a role model that looks like me and that really is the reason why we do this,” she said.

“I really want to help or create a space for international students to be comfortable and to have this space for them to build themselves up.”

University of Melbourne international student Aasha Sriram said female international students have to overcome many cultural barriers to adapt to life in Australia.

“There are societal differences where female students are very shy to accept and seek help, are not that outgoing, or their expectations and their commitments are rooted in other things that male students are just not bound by,” Ms Sriram said.

“It’s very hard for female students to balance ... being independent and satisfying the position that they have to occupy because of those social-cultural barriers.”

Ms Sriram said community based initiatives, and putting yourself out there, is key for female international students to get what they want during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I have put myself out there in places that I never thought I would have posted on Facebook groups... looking for a job as a coffee barista,” Ms Siram said.

“There can't be any one concerted effort like one-size-fits-all effort, but at the same time, they can be community-based initiatives.

“The Sikh community here is like giving out free meals and the Chinese community here is helping the Chinese students, so those kinds of community initiatives go a long way.”

According to a nationwide survey by Unions NSW, 60 per cent of international students have lost their job due to COVID-19 with one-in-four working casual jobs in the female dominated hospitality sector.

A report by the Asian Australian Alliance has also shown many female international students of Asian descent have also been the target of COVID-19-related racism. 

Sociologist and honorary lecturer at Australian National University Dr Angela Lehmann said COVID-19 has revealed a “dual crisis” for female international students.

“[International women] are vulnerable because they are women and they are young, but they are also vulnerable back home... because they might have families who are really struggling financially [and] socially,” Dr Lehmann said.

“I think that that’s quite traumatic in terms of mental health support but also in terms of financial support,” she said.

“So there's a lot of work I think that could be done at that social and community support level to make sure that we are targeting vulnerable groups with the right information in a culturally effective way.”

Future Female will be running online from September 28 to October 2.