Each year, to wrap up the week of International Women’s Day, the Sydney Opera House hosts All About Women, a festival of panels, talks and workshops centred around issues and ideas that are important to women and gender-diverse people. The full line-up of the 2024 edition has just dropped, with more than 40 thought leaders gathering for 24 events, joining previously announced guests Rebecca F Kuang, author of bestselling novel Yellowface, and celebrity historian Mary Beard, author of Women & Power, among many other books.

The Opera House’s head of talks and ideas, Chip Rolley, has curated the program alongside three previous All About Women guests: writers Bri Lee and Clementine Ford, and writer and actor Nakkiah Lui.

On our panel hitlist? Our Bodies, in which activists Grace Tame and Tanya Hosch, writer and tattoo artist Madison Griffiths, and author and documentary-maker Tara Rae Moss discuss the body – who controls it and who judges it. For Why So Sad, Girl, hosted by Guardian Australia opinion editor Bridie Jabour, author of A Lonely Girl is a Dangerous Thing Jessie Tu, writer Neha Kale and Green Dot author Madeleine Gray will convene to examine the current infatuation with “sad girl” novels. And Tiktoker and video essayist Mary Mcgillivray, writer and activist Sisonke Msimang, author and founder of Cheek Media, Hannah Ferguson, and author and academic Larissa Behrendt will debate the interplay between online personas, money and education in Influencers Are the New Intellectuals.

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A range of fascinating talks include Wifedom author Anna Funder on how George Orwell diminished the impact and efforts of his wife Eileen O’Shaughnessy on his works; sexual consent activist Chanel Contos on rethinking porn; Marisa Meltzer, author of Glossy: Ambition, Beauty, and the Inside Story of Emily Weiss’s Glossier on the beauty industry; and Booker-winning author Anne Enright on inherited trauma and her most recent novel, The Wren, The Wren.

Other guests include presenters Jan Fran, Lucinda “Froomes” Price and Brooke Boney, musician Barkaa and writer Michelle Law.

Beyond panels and talks, a series of workshops includes candle-making with the Nonna’s Grocer team, a dance class focused on femininity and a mindful-journaling session. Plus, Chaotic Social’s Chrissy Flanagan will host a speed-mating session and a book club and Narcissus, a work by artist Angela Tiatia, will be installed at the Western Broadwalk and in the Concert Hall.

All About Women is on March 10, 2024, at Sydney Opera House. General public tickets on sale 9am January 17.

sydneyoperahouse.com