Update | Policy, Government, Data Framework and the Health and Medical Sciences sector
Our focus on collaborative advocacy for a systems approach to gender equity, diversity and inclusion in healthcare and health and medical sciences continues unabated and this past quarter was no exception.
Key highlights to share with our readers include our productive meeting with Dr. Niki Vincent, Commissioner – Victorian Gender Equality for the Public Sector and her team, and Prof Euan Wallace, Secretary - Department of Health to present on and discuss AWHL’s progress with our Data Framework for the national health workforce, exchange insights and information on the unique challenges that impact this segment of the workforce and healthcare providers, including data collection, and to plan collaborative activities around areas of mutual interests including a joint event for 2025 – watch this space!
About the AWHL Data Framework: AWHL has been conducting a review of available Australian gender equity datasets which revealed that current datasets for benchmarking organisations lack gender equity metrics with impacts that advance women’s leadership representation. To shift from 'fixing' the individual women to changing the system, we need a national gender equity data framework to evaluate healthcare organisations interventions. This framework must capture impactful gender equity practices while benchmarking and scoring organisational efforts. Scoring gender equity practices on a large scale is challenging, as these practices are predominantly explored through qualitative studies. However, we've been drafting a new framework benchmarking organisational practices using insights from our existing programs and recent developments. Innovation here includes measuring and guiding processes of change rather than just measuring equality outcome measures. We are co-developing this framework with relevant industry stakeholders to ensure relevance and optimise implementation. We look forward to publishing further on this work, and continuing to implement the first national gender equity data framework. Stay tuned for further updates.
A further exciting development is the AWHL Partnership Centre’s work with the Health and Medical Sciences sector. We are partnering with the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences (AAHMS), and are coproducing a bespoke, holistic and multifaceted decadal plan to underpin the Academy’s strategy for the Health and Medical Sciences sector. This work will involve our other partners the Association of Australian Medical Research Institutes (AAMRI), Science in Australia Gender Equity (SAGE) as well as representatives from lead federal and state government departments as key collaborators. As a major partner in this work, we are supporting AAHMS via AWHL’s research expertise, consolidated evidence and established consultation strategies. We look forward to engaging with the broader AWHL community and the sector to inform the codevelopment of this important decadal plan to drive sustainable transformation in gender equity, diversity and inclusion in the health and medical sciences sector.
Last, but not least, AWHL extends warm congratulations to our partner SAGE on their grant funding award of $7.1 mil over five years from the Federal Government as part of the Government's response to the recommendations of the Pathways to Diversity in STEM review to support a thriving, skilled and diverse STEM workforce. We look forward to our continued collaboration with and ongoing support for SAGE's very important work.