Indi MP Helen Haines will speak to gender equality and the culture of Australian Parliament at an International Women's Day event tonight.
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The Zonta Club of Albury-Wodonga function will see women awarded for their community contributions.
Ahead of the event, Dr Haines told The Border Mail much more had to be done on women's equality.
"Right now, just 30 per cent of parliamentarians are women," she said.
"Since the Australian Parliament was formed in 1901, there's only been 133 women elected to Parliament in its entire history, and that couldn't even fill the House of Representatives once. We've had one female Prime Minister.
"We are a long way off and I'll be talking about that."
Dr Haines agreed the election of Kamala Harris as America's first female vice-president was encouraging.
"But again, the U.S. Parliament is a lot older than ours, and look how long it took," she said.
"I think women are tired of waiting, so I'll be encouraging women to work together to step up, and do everything I can as a leader and a mentor to assist women in taking leadership positions.
"There's good reasons why women haven't stepped forward in the past.
"We've really got to do a lot more about this."
