In GMW's latest podcast episode, which goes live on Tuesday to mark International Women's Day, Ms Johnson speaks about her journey from the farm to becoming the founding member of Women in Agriculture and the chair of the Victorian Women's Trust.

"By the time I was appointed to the board of GMW, I had learned an awful lot about creating change, empowering people... and developed a lot of skills around engagement in the context where ordinary people felt like they had a voice and could get involved," she said.

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"My move towards water was really from a point of view of my sense of social justice, of ordinary people having a say in the future of agriculture, of being an environmentalist and coming together and saying the future of water is one of the most important things that is a current issue."

Ms Johnson said the recent move towards appointing 50 per cent women to all state government boards had been a breakthrough for diversity.

"We all know about unconscious bias and what operates that keeps people from moving towards diversity for all sorts of reasons," she said.

"The journey for women onto boards has been incredibly hard which is why this is such a breakthrough because it was so hard to break through as a woman and there was so much going against you."

And while the water industry is very heavily male engineer focused, Ms Johnson said she was starting to see that shift and evolve over time.

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"We need to make sure we do proactive things to create greater diversity in opportunity in our workforce for not only women but people of non-English speaking background and our First Nations people. That's been a huge part of me wanting to be here," she said.

Ms Johnson said she had been welcomed with open arms since joining the GMW board in October 2015, of which five current members are women.

"All the men on the board been absolutely wonderful to work with and I have had an opportunity of realising what it's like to do that serious board work without having any concerns about your gender that might work against you," she said.

"I can only commend the people who've been my fellow board members during my time and now we have both a female chairperson and female managing director who are there for their skill and expertise is an extraordinary example of how well our organisation has moved in that direction," she said.

"We have come a long way and I am happy to be part of watching GMW become the sort of organisation where diversity is embraced and that we become a place of opportunity for everybody and that's an exciting thing to be part of."

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Ms Johnson, who was inducted into the Victorian Honour Roll of Women in 2018, said IWD went beyond a day of celebration.

"It's a time to stop and take note not of how much has been achieved for women in terms of their participation in society but also to reflect on how far we have to go, she said.

"We might have made great gains on women's participation in society. Unfortunately we have not made great gains in women's personal safety. We still live in a society where women continue to be killed because of domestic violence, and are sexually harassed."

"It really is up to all of us to want to open our eyes and understand and see what fundamental changes we've still got to make in society and that men have got to make in order for women to feel safe."

You can listen to Alana on the Talking Water with GMW podcast on Tuesday, March 8, by visiting the GMW website, Pod Bean, Apple Podcasts, or Google Podcasts.

March 8 marks International Women's Day. The Bendigo Advertiser will be publishing several articles over the course of the day sharing the stories celebrating women in the Bendigo community, their triumphs and their battles. To learn more about the week, visit International Women's Day.

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