Category: Women’s health
-
Taking migrant women’s health context into account
Zohra Lassi, Negin Mirzaei Damabi, Abela Mahimbo Since 1945, Australia has welcomed close to a million refugees. However, when a pregnant refugee woman walks into a hospital, her experience rarely leaves a trace in our health records. Her name might appear on a patient chart, but her migration background, language,…
-
Use a gender justice lens across all aspects of health, Lancet Commission urges
Connie Musolino and Kristen Foley More consistent understanding of gender as a social construct by people across the health sector can help lead to better policies and programs and, ideally, healthier, more equitable populations, authors of a Lancet Commission report say. Recognising why and how there’s been a…
-
Women from diverse backgrounds must lead and shape research
Negin Mirzaei Damabi, Zahra Ali Padhani, Patience Castleton, and Zohra Lassi Women continue to be underrepresented in STEM occupations. In Australia, women made up just 15% of STEM-qualified roles in 2023. While their presence in these fields has grown by 76% over the past decade, the gender gap remains stark.…
-
A call to action for women’s health
Dr Keeth Mayakaduwage Receiving the Public Health Association of Australia (PHAA) Emerging Leader Award at the Australian Public Health Conference was an incredible honour and a milestone in my career as a public health advocate. This recognition not only affirms the importance of my work but amplifies the urgent need…
-
Australia urgently needs better preconception health support
Amie Steel, Edwina Dorney, Jacqueline Boyle Most people know that smoking and drinking alcohol during pregnancy is not ideal. But very few know just how important it is for both parents to maintain healthy behaviours, not only during pregnancy, but in the weeks or months beforehand. The health of both…
-
Hard-hitting WA campaign helps shift attitudes on alcohol during pregnancy
Hollie Harwood, Public Health Association of Australia Research shows that around 35 percent of pregnant women in Australia drink at least some alcohol during pregnancy, despite the health recommendation being abstinence during pregnancy. However, new research published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health last week shows…
-
Australian women’s access to abortion is a postcode lottery. Here’s what needs to change
Danielle Mazza, Monash University When the American legal precedent protecting women’s right to an abortion in the United States, Roe versus Wade, was overturned last year, women around the world felt anxious. In Australia, despite abortion being legal, there was increasing concern about women’s ability to access abortion. This led…
-
‘I take it with a pinch of salt’: why women question health warnings linking alcohol with breast cancer
Belinda Lunnay, Torrens University Australia; Paul Ward, Torrens University Australia, and Samantha Meyer, University of Waterloo Up to one in ten cases of breast cancer in Australia is linked to drinking alcohol. Midlife women are already at increased risk for breast cancer because of their age, and tend to drink…
-
Menopause, mental health, and sexual violence highlighted during Women’s Health Week
Danielle Gavanescu, Master of Public Health student and former PHAA Intern Women’s Health Week 2022, run from 5-11 September, is the biggest week in Australia dedicated to the health of women, girls, and gender diverse people. The campaign run by Jean Hailes features many events and online activities designed to promote…
-
Roe vs. Wade and the recent overturn of the 50-year-old ruling by the US Supreme Court
Professor Jaya Dantas and Dr Claire Rogers Co- Convenors, PHAA International Health Special Interest Group On the 24 June 2022, the Supreme Court of the United States stripped women, and girls of existing legal protections necessary to determine the course of their lives. Legal protections for abortion access and…
-
Reproductive Freedom Needs Continual Defence
Dr Abela Mahimbo and Dr Amie Steel PHAA’s Women’s Health Special Interest Group convenors The Australian public health community is outraged at the decisions of US state legislatures to deny women’s reproductive control over their lives. On Friday the US Supreme Court, by a 5-4 majority of conservative judges,…
-
As Netball Australia eyes betting sponsorship, women and girls are at increased risk of gambling harm
Samantha Thomas, Deakin University; Hannah Pitt, Deakin University, and Simone McCarthy, Deakin University Netball Australia CEO Kelly Ryan said last week she would consider accepting gambling sponsorship to help with Netball Australia’s debts. Gambling sponsorships were “lucrative” for sports, she reasoned, adding netball had to “put itself a little bit…
-
So now the real work begins
PHAA CEO, Adj Prof Terry Slevin I suspect a lot of us will have had a pretty good weekend. The truth is, by any objective analysis a change of government will be good for public health in Australia. Our own scorecard based on the responses of the three major political…
-
The potential global effects if Roe v. Wade is overturned
Professor Jaya Dantas, Dr Claire Rogers, Dr Abela Mahimbo, and Professor Angela Taft Recently, United States (US) political news outlet Politico published a leaked draft of a Supreme Court majority decision that would explicitly overturn Roe v. Wade and with it, 50 years of the Supreme Court’s legal precedent…
-
Dr Abela Mahimbo brings expertise in refugee and migrant health to Women’s Health Special Interest Group Co-Convenor role
PHAA The PHAA Women’s Health Special Interest Group (SIG) has been previously led by women’s public health experts including Professor Angela Dawson, Dr Geraldine Vaughan, and Pip Buckingham. They have passed the baton to new co-convenors Dr Abela Mahimbo and Dr Amie Steel for 2022. In the second of our…
-
Survey reveals new Aussie mums are tired but generally coping okay during pandemic peaks
Jeremy Lasek – PHAA COVID-19 seems to have thrown everything at us. In Australia, this includes both ‘baby busts’ and ‘baby booms’. A new, Australian-first study, released in Frontiers in Global Women’s Health has shed light on how new mums coped with the challenges of motherhood during a global pandemic.…
-
‘One of the pandemics we haven’t talked about is the pandemic of ageism,’ says Prof Julie Byles AO
Jeremy Lasek – PHAA Introduction We continue our series celebrating the achievements of leading lights in Australia’s public health networks who’ve been deservedly recognised in the 2022 Australia Day Honours. Today we meet Professor Julie Byles AO. Julie was honoured as an Officer in the Order of Australia ‘for her…
-
A Q&A with Dr Amie Steel, one of two new Women’s Health Special Interest Group Co-Convenors
PHAA The PHAA Women’s Health Special Interest Group (SIG) has historically been one of our most active SIGs, with past Co-Convenors including women’s public health experts like Professor Angela Dawson, Dr Geraldine Vaughan, and Pip Buckingham. In the first of a Q&A blog series on new 2022 PHAA SIG convenors,…
-
Uniquely precarious: Temporary visa holders experiencing domestic violence
Chithra Ravi Mandalam – PHAA Intern and Deakin University student This month, the Australian Government accepted submissions on the draft National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children 2022-32. The last five years have seen a drastic shift in the tone of discussion around violence faced by women and…
-
The $55 billion formula industry – violating international commitments
Dr Mary-Anne Land – PHAA Forty years ago, the World Health Assembly adopted the International Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes (the Code) to regulate the marketing of breast-milk substitutes, and protect mothers from aggressive marketing practices. Yet forty years on, formula marketing still represents one of the most underappreciated…
-
PHAA salutes the positive health impacts of Australians of the Year 2022
Jeremy Lasek – PHAA The Public Health Association of Australia congratulates our 2022 Australians of the Year, four remarkable individuals who have dedicated their lives to improving the health of our nation. Your 2022 Australians of the Year 🙌 It was such an inspiring evening having all our state and…
-
New study proves laughter is the best medicine
Jeremy Lasek – PHAA Given the world remains in the vice-like grip of this once-in-a-century pandemic, and the start of 2022 sees no end to the COVID-chaos, maintaining a sense of humour hasn’t been easy. Research released recently in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, titled A systematic…
-
Henrietta Lacks’ iconic story of inequity, injustice, and disparities in health holds Australian relevance
Dr Mary-Anne Land (PHAA) & Associate Professor Lisa Whop (ANU) As a young mother, Henrietta Lacks and her husband were raising five children near Baltimore when she fell ill. She went to Johns Hopkins – one of the few hospitals at the time which would treat black people – after…
-
Footy Finals and Domestic Violence Spikes; Are Current National Initiatives Working?
Melanie Parker – PHAA intern Geraldine Vaughan – co-convenor, Women’s Health SIG PHAA The 2021 footy season ended with thrilling finals for both AFL and NRL codes. Yet, alongside the finals celebrations runs another thread: the known spikes in domestic violence rates on days of sporting significance. The Foundation for…
-
Drugs, advocacy, and understanding public health’s ‘new frontier’: it’s conference week
Jeremy Lasek – PHAA The Australian Public Health Conference 2021 starts this Thurday 23 September, and features a stellar line-up of presenters. One final reminder, this year’s conference is virtual only, so if you haven’t cancelled your travel plans and accommodation in the national capital, please make that a…
-
PHAA board member, Dr Summer May Finlay, part of community-led COVID19 vaccination campaign
Jeremy Lasek – PHAA One of the leading lights in Australia’s public health sector, proud Yorta Yorta woman, Dr Summer May Finlay, is leading the call for more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders to get vaccinated against COVID. Prompted by recent data from the Department of Health showing a big…
-
FGM: A human rights violation that affects Australian women
Angela Dawson – PHAA member and Melanie Parker – PHAA intern Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) is a traditional practice that involves the partial or total removal of the external genitalia of women and girls or other injury to their genitals for non-medical reasons. FGM is a violation of human rights…
-
A future fit for reproductive health and rights
Angela Dawson – PHAA member The inaugural Australasian Sexual and Reproductive Health Day is an exciting opportunity to hear leaders in sexual and reproductive health discuss securing the future of reproductive health and rights. The day will explore leadership, technology, workforce, community and civil society and their role in…
-
March 4 Justice – ending the silence on gender-based violence
Karina Martin, Public Health Association of Australia “We are all here today, not because we want to be here, because we have to be here. We are here because it’s unfathomable that we are still having to fight the same stale, tired fight”, said Brittany Higgins at the Women’s March…
-
National Cervical Screening Program isn’t meeting the needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, survey reveals
Cervical cancer incidence and mortality rates have halved in Australia since the introduction in 1991 of the National Cervical Screening Program (NCSP). Although Australia could be one of the first countries in the world to eliminate cervical cancer, incidence rates among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women remain more than…