💥 Woman Up: Rising, resisting and owning our strength
This night goes beyond slogans and soundbites. Six women, six decades, each sharing what it really takes to stand tall when the world tells you to shrink. These are stories of courage, resistance and strength found in unexpected places. And here’s the beautiful part: when women rise, we all rise.
If you’ve ever been told you’re ‘not enough’, you’ll feel these stories in your bones. You’ll leave reminded that even when power is denied or stripped away, women’s voices can rise and create change..
💫 Our Performer Line-up:
Team 20s: Bianca Stern is Head of Impact and a founding member of All Things Equal, a Melbourne social enterprise creating award-wage employment pathways for people with disability. A Forbes 30 Under 30 recipient, Bianca works across inclusive employment, disability advocacy, and systems change, focused on building scalable, community-led social impact. She is also very passionate about eating scrambled eggs with vegemite.
Team 30s: Nakita Irvin is an award-winning entrepreneur, pacific leader, sustainable food expert, community builder and artist. She has spent 7 years founding, growing and developing a for-profit-women’s social enterprise and not-for-profit co-share commercial kitchen in Suva, Fiji. She moved to Naarm from Suva in 2024 and has pivoted in a new career direction. She is now a full-time aged carer and disability support worker.
Team 40s: Som Puri is a TEDx speaker specialising in creativity and authentic self-expression as drivers of performance. With 15+ years shaping brand voice for leading retail brands, she helps organisations reduce self-censorship, strengthen collaboration and produce more commercially effective ideas.
Team 50s: Sonia Murr is a queer writer and teacher who is wrangling with a frustratingly shapeshifting book project, developed as a part of the 2025 Faber Creative Non-Fiction Writing program. When she is not writing for teachers and students, she is pitching and developing essays on gender, grief and midlife identities.
Team 60s: Virginia Haussegger AM is an award-winning journalist, author, gender equity advocate and social justice warrior. A former ABC News anchor, she’s reported from global hotspots for Channel Seven and Nine networks. Her latest book Unfinished Revolution: The Feminist Fightback (2025) is a clarion call for collective action.
Team 70s+: Bea Toews was born and trained as a teacher in Canada before emigrating to Australia in 1971. She has taught internationally in Thailand, Malaysia and Russia. In 2011, she remarried and retired. She now lives between Thailand and Melbourne and has built a house, become a widow, learned Thai and embraced powerlifting — proving that it’s never too late for new adventures.
About Generation Women
Generation Women is a global storytelling movement that celebrates women’s voices across the decades.
Founded in New York in 2017, Generation Women launched in Sydney in 2018 and Melbourne in 2020. Every show features six storytellers — one from each decade of life, from her 20s to her 70s+ — sharing original stories on a shared theme.
Why Generation Women Australia?
Generation Women Australia is proudly award-winning and is the only chapter in the world to offer an ongoing membership program, giving our community even more ways to connect, belong and grow between shows.
This event is presented by Generation Women Australia, founded by Donna Logue. The show will be hosted by Rebecca Lister.
Generation Women was originally created by Georgia Clark in New York.
Event Details
📍 Howler
7–11 Dawson St, Brunswick VIC 3056
🕢 Doors at 6:30 PM
🎤 Show at 7:00 PM
Want to feel even more connected?
✨ Membership is Now Open!
If you love our nights, don’t let the stories stop here. Join Generation Women Australia as a member and be part of the movement all year round.
🎁 What You Get as a Member
✔️ 120 brand-new true stories every year (20 live shows, 6 storytellers per show)
✔️ $1,000+ library included — 30+ full shows on video & audio, instantly
✔️ A searchable story library — find what you need by theme, generation, or mood
✔️ An exclusive member hub — reflect, connect, or simply watch quietly
✔️ 1:1 welcome concierge — real human support to help you settle in
✔️ Member-only bonuses — surprise giveaways + perks
✔️ Discounted tickets — save every time on Sydney & Melbourne live shows
💛 Membership is open right now in Melbourne — join us today and make sure women’s voices stay seen, heard, and celebrated.
Already a member? Don’t forget to enter your discount code at checkout for $10 off your ticket.