AFMW’s affiliate partner Advancing Women in Healthcare Leadership (AWHL) have announced their national initiative has received additional funding from the NHMRC together with 17 partners.
AWHL is supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council Partnership Projects scheme, along with their major partners including Royal Australasian College of Physicians, Royal Australasian College of Surgeons, Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists, Royal Australasian College of Medical Administrators, Australian Medical Association, government and healthcare services.
The AWHL research, implementation and impact initiative aims to advance women in healthcare leadership to progress careers, deliver gender equity and improve health outcomes.
The initial AWHL initiative was funded by the NHMRC in 2019 with nine partners and has now grown to a $5 million dollar national initiative with 17 partners across professional, medical and nursing colleges, industrial bodies, leading health services, government, and academia. Our evidence-based systems and tools will support scale, and provide a blueprint for Australia and internationally to advance women in healthcare leadership.
Ultimately, AHWL is building evidence and translating this into practice to address the need for more women in leadership positions and the limitations to career progression. This vital funding enables the implementation to drive equity and change, acknowledging that the burden for change should not sit with individual women, but rather the systems and organisations in which they work.
This initiative includes an embedded national Women in Leadership Scholarship Program, with 30 women, many in rural areas, who are given an opportunity to attend Monash University’s evidence-based Women in Leadership Program for leadership development to transform careers and improve the care of our most underserved populations. The scholarship program was the brainchild of Lead Research Fellow Dr Belinda Garth, who lives in regional Victoria and is passionate about equity for rural and remote women.
The leader and Chief Investigator of the initiative, Professor Helena Teede, Director of the Monash Centre for Health Research and Implementation (MCHRI) has highlighted that there is a vital need to move beyond the problems and the barriers to meaningful, effective solutions for advancing women’s careers.
“This initiative leverages our expertise, extends our partnerships and delivers the most comprehensive and impactful research on women in healthcare leadership internationally. We are grateful to the NHMRC, the Government and our 17 partners for supporting it.”
— PROFESSOR HELENA TEEDE Director of the Monash Centre for Health Research and Implementation (MCHRI)
Women continue to be underrepresented in leadership, including in healthcare, with evidence showing that greater equity and diversity in leadership, leads to more equitable healthcare, social justice and improved healthcare outcomes for women. It is also linked to improved organisational performance.
The WHO Global Health Workforce report “Delivered by Women, Led by Men, highlights the problems this research will address.
Professor Teede said the initiative’s focus is on healthcare, a sector that employs one in every four women in the Australian workforce, but the academic and education sectors are partners here and the evidence generated will be applicable to other sectors and industries.
In AWHL’s leadership development stream, “We were inundated with applicants for our scholarship program, which shows that women want to be equipped with leadership skills, to be encouraged and supported, but have limited opportunities. This evidence-based leadership program will fill a key gap. Scholarship recipients include nurses, GPs and other health professionals, including those from diverse cultural backgrounds,” said Dr Garth.
“Recipients are located across metropolitan, rural and remote areas from Tasmania to the Torres Strait and Northern Territory, and from across a range of health services and academia, including the Royal Flying Doctor Service, Aboriginal community-controlled health services, leading health services and other settings” – DR BELINDA GARTH Lead Research Fellow of AWHL & brainchild of the Women in Leadership Scholarship Program
Scholarship recipient Dr Jasmine Banner, a Northern Territory-based Clinical Lead & GP Obstetrician, is thankful for the opportunity.
“I’m very keen to gain experience in leadership to aid my community and team, with some like minded women” – DR JASMINE BANNER Women in Leadership scholarship recipient & Northern Territory-based Clinical Lead & GP Obstetricia
These women have expressed their ambitions to “bring kindness back as a core value in healthcare leadership, aid their community and team and develop skills to support and empower future culturally diverse leaders. The Leadership Development Scholarship Program focuses on the development of skills to enhance career acceleration and to enable health services transformation in partnership with communities” says Professor Teede.
[Photo credit and original article]
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.
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.
