Women's Policy, Research & Resource Links
This page contains links to some of the key women's policy, strategy and research websites. Please use our feedback page to suggest additional links.
Victorian Government
Women's Policy Framework 2008-2011
The Women’s Policy Framework is a Victorian whole-of-government policy for women released by the Office of Women’s Policy. It is structured around the themes of the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). These themes are justice and safety; education, work and economic independence; health, wellbeing and community strengthening; and representation and equity.
Women's Health and Wellbeing Strategy: Stage 2: 2006 - 2010
The Women's Health and Wellbeing Strategy guides policy and program development across a broad range of Department of Human Services responsibilities. The third strategy is currently under development and a summary of the consultation is now available.
A Right to Safety and Justice: Strategic Framework to Guide Continuing Family Violence Reform in Victoria 2010 - 2020
A Right to Safety and Justice is the Government’s framework providing a clear mandate for improving responses to victims of family violence. It is about securing the safety and wellbeing of family violence victims and holding perpetrators to account for their use of violence. It involves shared responsibility across the system and the community to end violence, and to provide all Victorian women and their children access to safety and justice in their communities.
A Right to Respect: Victoria’s Plan to Prevent Violence Against Women 2010 - 2020
A Right to Respect provides a coordinated, whole-of-community framework that contains a comprehensive range of strategies to promote non violence, gender equity and respectful relationships throughout the community – for example in homes, workplaces, on the sporting field, and in schools.
Indigenous Family Violence 10 Year Plan
The ten-year strategic plan, Strong Culture, Strong Peoples, Strong Families Towards a safer future for Indigenous families and communities, is the result of a partnership between the Victorian government and Victoria's Indigenous community to address Indigenous family violence.
Better Pathways: An Integrated Response to Women’s Offending and Re-offending
This is a four-year strategy developed in response to the significant growth in Victoria’s women prisoner population over the past decade.
Because Mental Health Matters: Victorian Mental Health Reform Strategy 2009–2019
This strategy is a whole-of-government ten-year plan for mental health. It represents a commitment by the Victorian government to ensure all
Victorians have the opportunities they need to maintain good mental
health while also supporting those with a mental illness to access high
quality, timely care and live successfully in the community.
A Better Place: Victorian Homelessness 2020 Strategy
This strategy proposes a standard definition of homelessness and a focus on prevention and early intervention to reduce the number of people becoming homeless.
A Fairer Victoria 2009: Real Support - Real Gains
A Fairer Victoria is a whole-of-government social policy action plan and is part of a long-term commitment to reducing disadvantage. This year, A Fairer Victoria is targeting
four priority areas: getting the best start, improving education and helping people into work, improving health and wellbeing, and developing liveable communities.
Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities
This Charter was enacted by Parliament in 2006 and focuses on civil and political rights.
Office of Women's Policy
The Office of Women's Policy has a range of other publications available, including previous women's policy frameworks, progress reports and factsheets.
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Federal Government
National Women's Health Policy
The National Women’s Health Policy aims to continue to improve the health and wellbeing of all women in Australia, especially those at greatest risk for poor health. The policy adopts a dual priority approach that recognises the importance of addressing immediate and future health challenges while also addressing the fundamental ways in which society impacts on women’s health and wellbeing.
National Plan to Reduce Violence Against Women and their Children 2010-2022
The National Plan is designed to provide a coordinated framework for the actions of commonwealth, state and territory governments. It will build on the current work of all Australian governments and NGOs. The central goals of the National Plan are to reduce violence agaisnt women and children and to improve how governments work together, to increase support for women and their children, and to create innovative and targeted ways to bring about change.
National Mental Health Policy 2008
This is a strategic framework to support improved mental health outcomes for people at risk of or experiencing mental health problems or mental illness.
The Road Home: White Paper on Homelessness
This White Paper on Homelessness sets the Australian Government's strategic agenda for reducing homelessness through to 2020. It recognises that domestic and family violence is the principle cause of homelessness among women.
Federal Discrimination Law (FDL) Online
FDL Online is the online version of Federal Discrimination Law. It is updated to reflect the latest developments in federal discrimination law.
Australia's combined sixth and seventh report on the implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women
In December 2008 the Australian Government lodged the sixth and seventh reports on the implementation of the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) with the UN. The Australian NGO Shadow Report is available here.
A National Health and Hospitals Network for Australia’s Future- Delivering Better Health and Better Hospitals
The Government has secured agreement to deliver a National Health and Hospitals Network – the most significant reforms to Australia’s health and hospital system since the introduction of Medicare, and one of the biggest reforms to the federation in its history. State and territory governments will work with the Commonwealth Government to deliver the National Health and Hospitals Network.
A National Health and Hospitals Network for Australia's Future- Delivering the Reforms
This document outlines Government activities, including timelines and major milestones to implement the major health reform agreed by COAG for implementation of the National Health and Hospitals Network.
Building a 21st Century Primary Health Care System- Australia’s First National Primary Health Care Strategy
This National Primary Health Care Strategy represents the first comprehensive national policy statement for primary health care in Australia and provides the platform on which to build a strong and efficient primary health care system into the future.
Taking Preventative Action
Taking Preventative Action outlines the Government’s response to Australia: the Healthiest Country by 2020, the final report of the National Preventative Health Taskforce, which put forward a range of strategies to address the growing economic and health burden associated with obesity, tobacco and alcohol.
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Australian Resources
Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society
The Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society (ARCSHS) is an independent research unit within the Faculty of Health Sciences at La Trobe University. ARCSHS is dedicated to the advancement of knowledge and applied skills in sexual health research and education locally, nationally and internationally.
Centre for Women's Health, Gender and Society
The Centre for Women's Health, Gender and Society is part of the University of Melbourne School of Population Health. It aims to improve women's health by ensuring that a women's health perspective is incorporated into research, teaching, policy and practice in Australia and internationally.
Australian Centre for the Study of Sexual Assault
The Australian Centre for the Study of Sexual Assault (ACSSA) has been developed to improve access to current information on all forms of sexual assault; particularly the sexual assault of women and girls over 15 years of age.
Australian Domestic and Family Violence Clearinghouse
The Clearinghouse is a national organisation, providing high quality information about domestic and family violence issues and practice. The primary goal of the Clearinghouse is to prevent domestic and family violence. They do this by supporting specialist and generalist service providers, government agencies, researchers, advocates and activists in their efforts, through the dissemination of information and research, and through facilitating discussion.
Women's Health Australia
The Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health (also known as Women's Health Australia) is a longitudinal population-based survey examining the health of over 40,000 Australian women over a 20 year period. The study is conducted by researchers and staff at the Priority Research Centre for Gender, Health and Ageing at the University of Newcastle and the School of Population Health at the University of Queensland.
Wellbeing Index
The Australian Centre on Quality of Life at Deakin University undertakes regular surveys to measure the wellbeing of Australians. Data is reported by gender and age.
Women's Health Victoria Clearinghouse
The Women's Health Victoria Clearinghouse collects resources relating to women's health. It holds a specialised collection of print and online resources that reflect a social model of health with a focus on gendered information in the Victorian context. The Clearinghouse catalogue provides records for the entire collection of more than 15,000 hardcopy and electronic items. The catalogue is publicly accessible via the Women's Health Victoria website. The collection is targeted to health professionals, service and information providers, policy makers, opinion leaders and researchers.
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International Resources
United Nations:
- Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW)
World Health Organisation:
- Madrid Statement: mainstreaming gender equity in health
- Gender, Women and Health program
- Commission on Social Determinants of Health Final Report: Closing the gap in a generation (pdf)
- Gender Analysis in Health: A review of selected tools (pdf)
The Source, the Survey and the Synthesis
The Source is a Canadian directory designed to assist researchers, policy makers, health planners, and students identify and access sources of health data for women and girls in Canada. The Survey contains a range of resources on women’s health, including international, national, and provincial documents. The Synthesis is a hybrid of The Source and The Survey that provides an analysis of women's health issues in Canada.
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