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 Health and Wellbeing Strategy 2010 – 2014
The goal of the strategy is to improve and promote the health and wellbeing of Victorian women, with a focus on identified populations where targeted approaches are required.
Victorian Health Plan – Victorian Health Priorities Framework 2012-2022
The Victorian Health Plan is an overall commitment from the Victorian Government to deliver positive health care outcomes and ensure people on a whole, are ‘as healthy as they can be’. The framework is divided into two plans - the Metropolitan Health Plan and the Rural and Regional Health Plan.
Victorian Public Health and Wellbeing Plan 2011-2015
This plan was released in 2011 to meet the Victorian Government’s responsibility to develop a plan to identify public health priorities for Victorians. Preventative health is central, and health protection and promotion are also listed as ways to improve the health and wellbeing of all Victorians.
Koolin Balit: Strategic directions for Aboriginal health 2012-2022
This is a 10-year strategy that aims to improve the health of Aboriginal Victorians. Key priorities are to close the gap in life expectancy for Aboriginal people living in Victoria, reduce the differences in infant mortality rates, morbidity and low birth weights and improve access to services and outcomes for Aboriginal people.
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.
Service Guideline for Gender Sensitivity and Safety 2011
This guideline is aimed at improving the safety of people who use mental health and alcohol and other drugs services. In particular, the guideline seeks to improve the safety of women accessing treatment and care through the development of gender-specific services.
Victorian Homelessness Action Plan 2011-2015
This four-year action plan focuses on early intervention, so that individuals do not become homeless. This will be achieved through better integrating services and the provision of support to people according to their individual needs. There is also a new focus on partnerships with different services so that the Government can develop a more cohesive, coordinated response to homelessness in Victoria.
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.
National Health Reform
In 2011, working in partnership with states and territories, the Australian Government agreed to reform Australia's health system and developed a national agreement that covers seven priority areas - hospital, primary care, aged care, mental health, standards, workforce and prevention. Some of those reforms are detailed below.
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.
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.
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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 was 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.
Jean Hailes for Women's Health
This not-for-profit women’s health organisation translates research findings into practical health and lifestyle approaches for women, and professional advise for nurses, GPs and health specialists.
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:
- UN Women
- 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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