shEqual, stemming from various cultural and systemic ‘wrongs’ that need to be corrected, was nationally launched in November 2020. An initiative of the Women’s Health Victoria (WHV), shEqual is intended to create a wave of change in advertising.
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As a board member of Women’s Health Victoria (WHV), we undertook the first white paper on the impacts of sexist advertising on Violence Against Women (VAW) and women’s health issues including self image, anxiety, BDD, Eating Disorders.
WHV received state government funding for this project which we, as a board (WHV) agreed, was a direction we should take especially following from the work we did on creating the www.labialibrary.org around female genital cosmetic surgery ( FGCS). See https://whv.org.au/resources/
With the findings created, from the sexist advertising policy paper, the brand shEqual evolved. It was borne out of workshopping with a top marketing and branding company responsible for creating the TAC and QUIT campaigns.
“Whether ads are explicit or subtle, advertising has the power to influence how women are treated in society.
shEqual has gained much momentum during these COVID times.
It is intended to create a wave of change in advertising, to create awareness around subconscious bias and to make people see how sexism pervades almost everything we see, and how we choose one person over another for particular roles. Another source of gender inequity.
It is the beginning of a movement which aims to change the tide at root level.
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Associate Professor Magdalena Simonis AM is the Immediate Past President of the AFMW (2020-2023), former President of VMWS (2013 & 2017-2020) and current AFMW National Coordinator (2024-2026). She is a full time clinician who also holds positions on several not for profit organisations, driven by her passion for bridging gaps across the health sector. She is a leading women’s health expert, keynote speaker, climate change and gender equity advocate and government advisor. Magda is member of The Australian Health Team contributing monthly articles.
Magdalena was awarded a lifetime membership of the RACGP for her contributions which include past chair of Women in General Practice, longstanding contribution to the RACGP Expert Committee Quality Care, the RACGP eHealth Expert Committee. She is regularly invited to comment on primary care research though mainstream and medical media and contributes articles on various health issues through newsGP and other publications.
Magdalena has represented the RACGP at senate enquiries and has worked on several National Health Framework reviews. She is author of the RACGP Guide on Female Genital Cosmetic Surgery and co-reviewer of the RACGP Red Book Women’s Health Chapter, and reviewer of the RACGP White book
Both an RACGP examiner and University examiner, she undertakes general practice research and is a GP Educator with the Safer Families Centre of Research Excellence, which develops education tools to assist the primary care sector identify, respond to and manage family violence . Roles outside of RACGP include the Strategy and Policy Committee for Breast Cancer Network Australia, Board Director of the Melbourne University Teaching Health Clinics and the elected GP representative to the AMA Federal Council. In 2022. she was award the AMA (Vic) Patrick Pritzwald-Steggman Award 2022, which celebrates a doctor who has made an exceptional contribution to the wellbeing of their colleagues and the community and was listed as Women’s Agenda 2022 finalist for Emerging Leader in Health.
Magdalena has presented at the United Nations as part of the Australian Assembly and was appointed the Australian representative to the World Health Organisation, World Assembly on COVID 19, by the Medical Women’s International Association (MWIA) in 2021. In 2023, A/Professor Simonis was included on the King’s COVID-19 Champion’s list and was also awarded a Member (AM) in the General Division for significant service to medicine through a range of roles and to women’s health.
