Small Grants Program

Project team

• Yunhe Huang
• Peiwen Liao
• Preeyaporn Srasuebkul (academic mentor)
• Julian Trollor (academic mentor), Department of Developmental Disability Neuropsychiatry (3DN), Faculty of Medicine & Health

About the project

This project aimed to examine patterns of contraception use and disparities between women with and without intellectual disability. To improve the real-life relevance of our project and amplify lived experience perspectives, the project utilised participatory research methods to help guide the development of research questions, interpretation of findings, and planning of translational actions. The project consulted with women with lived experience of intellectual disability and contraception use, as well as carers involved in contraception decision-making, as community research advisors throughout the project. 

Visit the Project website for more information. 

Image credit: Health Supplies Coalition/Unsplash

Project team

• Jisoo Amy Kwon, Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, The Kirby Institute

About the project

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is one of the major infectious diseases around the world; nearly 57 million people live with viraemic HCV, whilst morbidity and mortality associated with HCV remain high. Due to a reduction in treatment uptake, Australia could miss the WHO HCV elimination targets with the ongoing burden of advanced liver disease complications. Of an estimated 81,000 Australians infected with HCV at the end of 2021, 40% are women and 32% of people who initiated HCV treatment were women.  

We are currently conducting a systematic review to help us understand the gaps in the HCV cascade of care among this population. The study will provide a framework for how to offer equal access to care to women from non-English backgrounds who are living with HCV.   

We will provide updates as the study progresses.

Image credit: Mat Napo/Unsplash

Project team

• Bee Lan Oo, PhD - School of Built Environment

About the project

Early evidence suggests that the COVID-19 pandemic would disproportionately affect women compared to men, especially working mothers due to increased caring and domestic responsibilities. Focussing on women workforce in the Australian construction industry, this exploratory study examines: (i) their perceptions of the impacts of working from home (WFH) challenges on their work productivity; and (ii) their overall satisfaction of arrangement and future preference for WFH post pandemic. Considering that WFH or hybrid working has become a ‘new’ normal, these findings are critical in informing employing organizations’ human resource management challenges. These include the development of WFH and/or hybrid working protocols to better support their female employees. This would address the long-run challenges of recruitment and retention of women workforce in the industry. 

The data collection process of the project was completed in 2022 and the research team is now working on the data analysis and drafting a journal article for submission in the second half of 2023.

Image credit: Brian Wangenheim/Unsplash

Project team

• Miriam Glennie
• Karen Gardner, Public Sector Research Group, School of Business, UNSW Canberra

About the project

This study examines to what extent and how women’s experiences of maternity care and woman centred care models are included in performance monitoring frameworks in Australia and compares these with international approaches with the aim to identify opportunities to improve performance monitoring.  

We have completed an international literature review and an initial map of state and territory performance frameworks. From the analysis we have a preliminary conceptual framework and have identified the intended sample for interview. Once the Ethics application is approved, we will commence recruitment and conduct interviews in May.  

From there we will develop a conceptual framework for women-centred maternity service performance assessment and map existing state and territory maternity service indicators for the framework. 

We will provide more updates as the outcomes manifest.

Image credit: Mat Napo/Unsplash

Project team

• Kate Gunther
• Prof Christy Newman (academic mentor)
• A/Prof Caroline Ford (academic mentor)
• Mr Anthony Smith (academic mentor), School of Clinical Medicine, Faculty of Medicine and Health

About the project

Our research focuses on benign gynaecological diseases, such as endometriosis, as well as gynaecological cancers, including ovarian and endometrial cancer. Our research has previously been grouped under the umbrella of women's health but we are increasingly uncomfortable with how this language implies that all people with gynaecological disease identify as women, and that all women have an interest in gynaecological disease. For example, a focus on women's health may perpetuate inequities and exclusions for those who have a diverse gender identity, such as non-binary or agender people, or who are socially and/or legally recognised as (transgender) men.  

While there are many discussions happening around the world regarding how to make the field of women's health more inclusive of gender diversity, there are no agreed guidelines or frameworks in place to shape the best practice in the use of accurate and inclusive language in our field.  

With the grant from the WWBA and in partnership with Prof Christy Newman and Mr Anthony Smith, leading experts in social research in health, gender and sexuality, based at the UNSW Centre for Social Research in Health, we are conducting a comprehensive review of the literature and the development of a detailed project plan.  

We are in the process of organising a collaborative workshop set for November this year to communicate our findings. We are engaging a range of medical researchers, clinicians, sociologists in gender, trans and diverse health, and in LGBTQ+ science communication, and this workshop will be facilitated by Resident Medical Officer and journalist Dr Amy Coopes. We look forward to providing more updates as we continue this project and inform findings from our diverse backgrounds.

Image credit: Alexander Grey/Unsplash

Building Back Better: Post-COVID-19 Disaster Recovery Initiatives for Gender Empowerment

Project team

A/Prof Minako Sakai (Project Lead), UNSW Canberra
Dr Nelia Hyndman-Rizk and Dr Felix Tan, Asia Pacific Development and Security Research Group

Funding

This project was part of the Women’s Wellbeing Academy’s first seed funding round in 2020, receiving $4000.

About the project

This project has focused on gender equality and women’s economic empowerment in patriarchal societies with a focus on Indonesia, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, all Muslim dominant countries. We have explored this issue as part of the COVID-19 recovery and assistance offered for Muslim women. Gender empowerment is one of the UN-led Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), but COVID-19 has impacted the progress in this area. 

In patriarchal societies, women have a major responsibility for domestic care while men are breadwinners.  Because of this context, generally NGOs in patriarchal societies have limited experience in designing suitable programs. However, women-owned small businesses usually generate an important additional income, and their businesses were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

For more information about this project, contact Minako Sakai

2022 update

Over the last two years during the pandemic most philanthropic organisations in Indonesia and Bangladesh have focused on immediate relief works such as distributions of food and daily essentials to families in need.  The fall of the Afghanistan government in 2021 and the establishment of the subsequent Taliban-led government have stalled our research engagement with IFRC Afghanistan. Furthermore, the COVID-19 and socio-political contexts have posed a significant challenge for engagement and research activities over the last three years.

Our research indicates that the development of long-term policies for women’s economic empowerment was strongly acknowledged by the NGOs in our research scope. Our engagement with policy-makers and NGOs resumed in September 2022 with two key advocacy and training events.

First, the Indonesian Minister of Women Empowerment and the Protection of Children, Ms Bintang Puspayoga endorsed the two books written by the research team members: Women Entrepreneurs and Business Development in Muslim Countries (Palgrave 2022 co-authored by Sakai and Fauzia), and an Indonesian monograph (Fauzia, Sakai, Tan, Hidayati,  Noor, 2021, Pemberdayaan Ekonomi Perempuan Muslim Berbasis Teknologi Digital dan Nilai Toleransi (Muslim Women’s Economic Empowerment based on Digital Technology and Religious Tolerance), Social Trust Fund (STF) UIN Syarif Hidayatullah Jakarta 2022). Both were launched at State Islamic University, Jakarta on 5September 2022.   

Second, Associate Professor Sakai gave research capacity-building training at the Dompet Dhuafa Foundation (DD) headquarters office in Jakarta and the DD Yogyakarta branch. The Dompet Dhuafa Foundation is among leading Muslim philanthropic organisation in Indonesia.  In Indonesia, Muslim donors offer almsgiving to community empowerment projects associated with Islamic organisations.  Yet there is a tendency to fund programs for men over women as men are expected to provide livelihoods to their family members. This poses a conflict between funding men over supporting women’s economic empowerment. The training sessions were to inform their project officers and management of recent scholarly findings associated with global gender equality strategies drawing on Sakai’s co-authored books (as above). The training was intended to share her insights with the management teams of the DD Jakarta with a view to inform their future program development in 2023. 

The findings illustrate that Indonesian Islam shows a way forward to resolve the issue. Their recent book examines supportive policies and economic programs to promote women’s economic empowerment, and role modelling on the Prophet Muhammad’s wives, Khadijah and Aishah.  Together, these provide a pathway for Muslim women to actively pursue and develop their small and medium business enterprises in urban areas. The emergent digital economy is accelerating this process. 

We thank partner NGOs, IFRC Afghanistan, Dompet Dhuafa Foundation, Indonesia, and Educo Bangladesh, and the ACFID for their support and interest in this research.  We also had discussions with Islamic microfinancing Institutions in Indonesia (PBMT) and UNDP Indonesia for innovative financing schemes to assist women-owned SMEs.

Media coverage on this project in Indonesia can be found here. 

Photo supplied by Dr Minako Sakai 

Comprehensive Sexuality Education within Juvenile Detention settings: A review of evidence to inform development of a pilot intervention

Project team

Dr Kristen Beek (Project Lead), UNSW Medicine and Health
Adam Howie
Kate Burry, The Kirby Institute, UNSW

Funding

This project was part of the Women’s Wellbeing Academy’s first seed funding round in 2020, receiving $4000.

About the project

Young people in the juvenile justice setting are often excluded from sexual and reproductive health education and services, including school-based sexual health curricula, yet these young people also represent a group of adolescents at high risk for sexual and reproductive ill health and injustice.

This project has undertaken a systematic review of evidence for the effectiveness of CSE on improving sexual and reproductive health and relationships of young people who have experienced juvenile detention.

For the next phases of this project, we will look further into the link between content and particular pedagogical strategies and specific outcomes and explore the potential of incorporating trauma informed educational approaches. We will finalise and publish our findings from the systematic review and then look to secure funding to co-develop targeted CSE curricula with young people who have experienced juvenile detention. 

For more information about this project, contact Kristen Beek

Photo credit: Gaelle Marcel/Unsplash 

CGM4GDM – Continuous Glucose Monitoring for Gestational Diabetes Mellitus

Project team

Dr Daria di Filippo (Project Lead), UNSW Medicine and Health
A/Prof Amanda Henry, UNSW Medicine and Health and The George Institute for Global Health
Professor Alec Welsh, UNSW Medicine

Funding

This project was part of the Women’s Wellbeing Academy’s first seed funding round in 2020, receiving $4000.

About the project

Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) represents a potential substitute for the poorly acceptable and replicable OGTT for the diagnosis of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM).

Our group has already proven the Medtronic Ipro2 CGM to be acceptable for patients and potentially unmasking misdiagnosis of OGTT. We now want to test the Abbott Freestyle Libre PRO CGM on a more composite cohort of women (including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people) to further define how GDM looks at CGM and how to unmask OGTT misdiagnosis.

For more information about this project, contact Daria di Filippo or visit the webpage. 

2022 update

The funds received by WWBA were used in conjunction with those kindly provided by the SPHERE Maternal and Newborn Clinical Academy Group and allowed the project team to complete and expand an Abbott Pilot study on the use of the Freestyle Libre PRO 2 Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) system for the diagnosis of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM).

The recruitment for the Abbott pilot study officially concluded in late March 2022 with 106 total participants: 68 from Royal Hospital for Women and 38 from St George Hospital in Sydney. The women's response was even more encouraging in the second part of the recruitment, which had to be suspended for three months due to the restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Forty-seven participants completed the study in 6 weeks. Among them, thirty patients agreed to have an ultrasound with us to check for diagnostic features of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM).

In March 2022, the research group had a manuscript " Development and evaluation of an online questionnaire to identify women at high and low risk of developing gestational diabetes mellitus" accepted for publication in "BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth". In this study, they analysed part of the data collected for the Abbott pilot study, comparing it with data from the Medtronic pilot study (using only three days of CGM data). 

Recently, another manuscript "Continuous glucose monitoring for the diagnosis of Gestational Diabetes Mellitus: a pilot study" was accepted for publication in the "Journal of Diabetes Research". In this study, a more in-depth analysis of the Medtronic pilot study data was presented, comparing it with the available literature on the use of CGM for GDM.

The project team is currently drafting a new manuscript, in which they will analyse the seven days of CGM data available with the Abbott sensors and expand the correlation with OGTT results to include ultrasound features of GDM.

Photo credit: Gaelle Marcel/Unsplash 

Cell-free DNA in blood: a novel, non-invasive test to diagnose endometriosis

Project team

A/Prof Caroline Ford (Project Lead), UNSW Medicine and Health
Ms Nicole Yuwono, UNSW Medicine and Health
Dr Kristina Warton, UNSW Medicine and Health
Dr Rebecca Deans, UNSW Medicine and Health
Prof Jason Abbott, UNSW Medicine and Health

Funding

This project was part of the Women’s Wellbeing Academy’s first seed funding round in 2020, receiving $4000.

About the project

We would like to firstly thank the WWBA for providing funds that enabled our group, the Gynaecological Cancer Research Group, to launch our project titled ‘Cell-free DNA in blood: a novel, non-invasive test to diagnose endometriosis’. 

Endometriosis is a disease where tissue of the uterine lining has grown outside of the uterus, typically in the abdominal cavity. Women with endometriosis experience debilitating chronic pain, infertility and reduced quality of life. It takes on average, 7 years from the onset of symptoms to diagnosis, which typically involves ultrasound and surgery. There have been no breakthroughs for better detection and endometriosis is generally under-researched.

Circulating cell-free DNA is DNA that is found in blood plasma. While it is present in healthy people, it can be elevated in patients with disease and carry a signature footprint of injured tissue. Thus, it is a form of liquid biopsy that offers non-invasive detection and diagnosis. In our research project we compared the levels of total cell-free DNA and cell-free DNA derived from uterine lining in healthy women and women with endometriosis and found that they did not differ between the two groups.

While the lack of difference meant that we have not been able to detect endometriosis through a simple blood test, this finding has another significant implication. Though endometriosis tissue can spread to other organs, like cancer do, it is a benign disease. One of the main objectives of our group is to develop a screening test to detect ovarian cancer early which relies on differences in cell-free DNA profiles between healthy controls and ovarian cancer patients. The lack of differences in cell-free DNA between healthy women and women with endometriosis is, in this context, beneficial as it means endometriosis is not likely to be a confounding factor in the ovarian cancer test under development by our group.

For more information about this project, contact A/Prof Caroline Ford 

2022 update

The fund from WWBA has enabled us to purchase laboratory consumables to perform the necessary DNA purifications and PCR analyses. We have now published the results of our investigation in the journal Human Reproduction (Yuwono, N.L., et al. Circulating cell-free endometrial DNA level is unaltered during menstruation and in endometriosis. Human Reproduction, 2022). Additionally, we presented the data in the 8th Thomas Ashworth CTC & liquid biopsy symposium where we received an Outstanding RapidFire presentation award.

Photos supplied by Dr Caroline Ford 

It’s Not Okay! – Sexual Harassment Comics

Project team

Emma Golledge, Director Kingsford Legal Centre (Project Lead)
Fiona Duane, Johannah Lowe and Denise Wasley, Kingsford Legal Centre

Funding

This project was part of the Women’s Wellbeing Academy’s first seed funding round in 2020, receiving $4000.

About the project

Sexual harassment in Australia is endemic and it disproportionately affects young people and young women.  It has long term health and wellbeing impacts on people.  Kingsford Legal Centre's project – ‘It's Not OK - Sexual Harassment Comics ‘- involved developing five comic strips on common sexual harassment scenarios for young people. The comics have corresponding questions for discussion and a teacher kit with instructions and information for teachers or adults to guide these conversations. We will use these comics in our school education program. We also have made it freely available on our website and hope to expand our training to community groups. We hope to target young people as they start to enter the workplace, so they are able to identify that sexual harassment is – Not OK – and that they have some skills in what to do or where to go if it happens to them. The comics also deal with what bystanders can do if they witness harassment.  Education like this to young people has been found to be a key preventative measure.

For more information about this project, contact legal@unsw.edu.au or access the comics and teachers kit. 

Positively Women: A research project using art to express what it means to be a woman living with HIV in Australia

Project team

Dr Allison Carter (Project Lead), The Kirby Institute, UNSW
Dr Patricia Morgan, The Kirby Institute, UNSW
Ms Jane Costello, CEO Positive Life NSW
Professor Katherine Boydell, The Black Dog Institute, UNSW
Dr Asha Persson, Centre for Social Research in Health, UNSW
A/Prof Christy Newman, Centre for Social Research in Health, UNSW
Dr Deborah Bateson, Medical Director of Family Planning NSW, the University of Sydney, and the Centre for Social Research in Health, UNSW Sydney

In collaboration with a national Community Advisory Board.

Funding

This project was part of the Women’s Wellbeing Academy’s first seed funding round in 2020, receiving $4000.

About the project

The Positively Women research project is a community- and arts-based research project working with Australian women living with HIV, based at the Kirby Institute, UNSW. The project was developed by a group of researchers at the Kirby Institute, women living with HIV, and service providers because of their concerns about the issues that Australian women living with HIV face.  They worked together to co-design, implement, and evaluate 10 Australian women’s experience of a 4-week online meditative art workshop. The overarching aim of the project was to explore how the creation of images and narratives by women with HIV about their lives could be empowering and transformative, both for the women and for those who viewed their artwork.

The project had two stages of data collection: first, a meditative art workshop with women living with HIV and second an online exhibition of the art works created in this workshop. Each stage had a specific research objective: the art workshop to explore how the representation of life with HIV through artistic work and storytelling by women can challenge dominant portrayals of HIV in Australia, and tours of a virtual art exhibition to assess the transformative potential of viewing art and reading stories created by women living with HIV.

For more information about this project, contact Allison Carter or visit the webpage. 

2022 update

In the first stage 10 women from across Australia participated in an online four-week meditative art workshop. The women ranged in age from 25–62 years, and time living with HIV, was 5–35 years. The workshops employed Meditative Process Art (MPA), a methodology developed and piloted in this research that combines meditation and art to capture participants’ subjective, embodied and somatic experiences. Across the course of the four weeks the women talked openly about self-determined topics through facilitated rounds of sharing, and after the workshop series they reflected on their experiences in semi-structured interviews.

Phenomenological analysis of workshop discussions and individual interviews confirmed the hypothesis that participating in meditative art workshops could be empowering and transformative. The benefits participants reported were divided across two central themes, those related to sharing and peer support, and those associated with the workings of the MPA method. The former revealed the importance of peer support for women who often experience isolation and marginalisation. 

Sharing, discussion and artistic expression of experiences in daily life, the trauma of an HIV diagnosis, the ensuing shame, anxiety, depression, and negative experiences with the medical system offered the means to discharge suppressed emotion. Benefits associated with the MPA method related to participants increased proficiency with the method. This resulted in their increased reflective and symbol making skills, which enabled them to rework negative imagery and ideas, and led to increased agency and the embedding of positive affect.

We found that the service providers, medical students and practitioners and women living with HIV who participated in tours of the Positively Women exhibition reported significant changes in their understanding of life with HIV. Finally, we recommend the use of women-focused contemplative creative programs that emphasis peer support, plus the development of health education programs that address the trauma associated with a HIV diagnosis, the stigma underpinning late diagnosis and the marginalising experiences in the health system that participants described.

Image credit: “We Love with HIV” by Abbie. Supplied by Dr Patricia Morgan

Sounds of Wellbeing – Uyghur women, oral traditions and spirituality

Project team

Dr Ayshe Eli, (Project Lead), Arts, Design and Architecture, UNSW
Scientia Professor Louise Edwards, Arts, Design and Architecture, UNSW

Funding

This project was part of the Women’s Wellbeing Academy’s first seed funding round in 2020, receiving $4000.

About the project

Poetry, oral literature, and folk traditions are deeply embedded in Uyghurs’ cultural life, spirituality, and the development of emotional knowledge. As the principal informants, Uyghur women play an essential role in safeguarding and giving communities ownership of these practices. As such, they have nurtured and maintained a sense of agency at times of grief, loss, and hardship.

Each year on the 21st of March when the vernal equinox dawns, Uyghurs celebrate the festival of Nowruz, which UNESCO recognises as Intangible Heritage of Humanity.  An ancient tradition likely emerged from Zoroastrianism, Nowruz, meaning ‘new-day’, welcomes the return of spring, heralds the rejuvenation of nature, and is celebrated by peoples from the Persianate societies to the Turkic world. Amongst Uyghurs, the preparation and celebration of Nowruz are highly ritualistic processes enshrined with spiritual significance and are confined mainly to women. Qoshaq, folk ballads are recited or improvised at various ceremonies. While these songs revolve around the arrival and celebration of the new year, they mostly deal with women’s emotions, spirituality, desires, love, and suppressed sensuality; as well as the triumph of joy over sorrow, and virtue over evil - thus, hope.

Led by Dr Ayshe Eli and Prof. Louise Edwards, the introduction of the festival of Nowruz is the first part of an ongoing project which aims to use sound, image, and text to document Uyghur women’s role in community building and poetry making. While these projects seek to preserve these cultural practices under threat, making them available to the many displaced Uyghur diasporic communities worldwide will help alleviate their increasing feelings of cultural, emotional, and spatial alienation.

For more information about this project, contact Ayshe Eli

2022 update

With the small project grant from WWBA and the support from the School of Humanities and Languages, we have transcribed and translated Nowruz folk songs and poetry as part of the effort to preserve and disseminate endangered cultural oral traditions practiced by the Uyghurs. These folk songs were performed at the celebration of 2022 Nowruz Festival at the Powerhouse Museum in March to great success and warm reception by a multi-cultural audience. Some of these outcomes have also been used as teaching materials in an undergraduate course: Along the Silk Road: Conquerors, traders and explorers; and will be used in the teaching of another course: Islam in Asia in 2024 when it is offered for the first time.

These resources will be made available in December 2022, on the Silk Roads@UNSW, ‘Sounds of the Silk Road’ page 

Photo supplied by Dr Ayshe Eli 

Violets in Bloom: Trans women’s experiences of ageing

Project team

Brooke Brady (Project Lead), UNSW Ageing Futures Institute
Scientia Professor Jill Bennett, Art, Design and Architecture, UNSW

And LGBTIQ+ community partners (BLAQ Aboriginal Corporation, Peta Friend, and Queer Agency)

Funding

This project was part of the Women’s Wellbeing Academy’s first seed funding round in 2020, receiving $4000.

About the project

The Talking Trans Ageing project shines a light on the experiences of mid-life and older transgender women and their perceptions, hopes and concerns about growing older. Internationally, transgender and non-binary women receive inadequate and inappropriate health and aged care. For many trans women, fear of discrimination can be associated with decreased likelihood of seeking treatment from services and institutions that have historically been a source of stigmatisation and harm. Trans women are at higher risk of social isolation and estrangement from family networks, and experience higher rates of physical and sexual violence from both known and unknown perpetrators compared to their cisgender counterparts. 

The series was produced by a queer and trans-led team and is the product of a collaboration between multi-disciplinary UNSW academics (Brooke Brady and Professor Jill Bennett) and LGBTIQ+ community partners (BLAQ Aboriginal Corporation, Peta Friend, and Queer Agency).

Dr Brooke Brady used the WWBA grant to produce and film two intimate video portraits of women with a transgender experience navigating aging. Filmed on location in Sydney (Eora), the films introduce us to Rusty, a Yamatji Noongar woman who grew up in Western Australia before finding herself in Sydney’s The Cross during the turbulent 1980’s. We also meet Carol, who came out to her family as transgender in her mid-fifties and continues to navigate the challenges and great joys that comes with living an authentic life. Both women discuss their hopes and concerns about growing older.

2022 update 

The films have been widely shared in Australia and internationally, particularly by community organisations that advocate for equality for marginalised women. The project has inspired ongoing work exploring dynamic gender experiences, including a related project funded by the UNSW Ageing Futures Institute, titled the dynamic gender hotline. The WWBA grant provided funding for community consultation with transgender community leaders, film and production costs. 

Photos of Rusty and Carol supplied by Brooke Brady 

‘Through my eyes’: self-portraiture, identity and inclusion

Project team

Diane Macdonald (Project Lead), Black Dog Institute & UNSW Medicine and Health
Prof Katherine Boydell, Black Dog Institute & UNSW Medicine and Health
Prof Karen Fisher, Social Policy Research Centre, UNSW
Assoc Prof Angela Dew, Disability & Inclusion, Deakin University

Funding

This project was part of the Women’s Wellbeing Academy’s first seed funding round in 2020, receiving $4000.

About the project

‘Through my eyes’ is an exhibition of photographic stories on identity and inclusion.

Six women photographers with disability share their personal experiences and stories through feminist self-portraits. The result is a photographic journey, offering unique insight into contemporary Australian women and the lived experience of disability today. ‘Through my eyes’ reveals fresh perspectives on disability to challenge pervasive, limiting negative attitudes and assumptions.

The exhibition features work by Kerry Fountain, Evianne Grosvenor, Melinda Montgomery, Karen Peacock, Marusha Rowe Pride and Malissa Thorpe.

For more information about this project, contact Diane Macdonald or visit 

2022 update

Diane Macdonald used the WWBA grant to engage regional and rural NSW with her research work on women's disability identity. Orange City Council, Orange Regional Gallery and the LiveBetter organisation launched a long-term project using Diane's PhD exhibition as a platform to engage more regional communities on social inclusion issues for women with disability. They will tour her exhibition throughout regional NSW and QLD to draw audiences into discussions about issues affecting people with disability. LiveBetter is also creating its own regional version of her PhD project, collaborating with some of her lived experience participants as project consultants. 

 The photo exhibition launch was held at Charles Sturt University's School of Rural Medicine and will move to Dubbo, Wagga Wagga, Townsville and more throughout the next two years. Diane and two of her research participants attended the launch to speak about the research process. The WWBA grant generously provided funding for the exhibition prints. 

‘Through my Eyes’ exhibition. Photo supplied by Diane Macdonald

The UNSW Gender Violence Prevention Synergy Project

Project team

Dr Ruth Wells, UNSW Medicine and Health
Professor Susan Rees, UNSW Medicine and Health
Dr Husna Razee, UNSW Medicine and Health
Professor Kimberlie Dean, UNSW Medicine and Health
Dr Patricia Cullen, UNSW Medicine and Health
Dr Amanda Henry, UNSW Medicine and Health
Dr Kristen Beek, UNSW Medicine and Health

Funding

This project was part of the Women’s Wellbeing Academy’s first seed funding round in 2020, receiving $4000.

About the project

The online hub will be part of the UNSW Gender Violence Prevention Synergy Project set up by the UNSW Prevention of Violence Against Women and Children Centre. The centre is comprised of key female and gender diverse individuals across Medicine and Health. The hub will promote collaborative translational research by connecting UNSW researchers, clinicians, educators, students and general community to cutting edge research into prevention of violence against women and children. The hub will be an innovative data base centrally located with a special focus on providing opportunities for female and gender diverse ECRs and students.  

At present data on research undertaken by the members of the Prevention of Violence Against Women and Children Centre has been collated. Once this project is finished, we will be looking for more funding to ensure that the hub is kept up-to-date and user friendly.
 

For more information about this project, contact Husna Razee 

Photo credit: Jurica Koletic/Unsplash 

Work and Wellbeing of University Staff during COVID-19: Working from home during the COVID-19 Pandemic: a cross-national study of women in academia

Project team

Dr Iona Ramia (Project Lead 2020-22)
Dr Andrew Wearing (Project Lead 2022-23), Centre for Social Impact, UNSW
Dr Natalie Galea
Prof David Peetz (Griffith University)

And colleagues across participating universities in Australia and Canada

Funding

This project was part of the Women’s Wellbeing Academy’s first seed funding round in 2020, receiving $4000.

About the project

Between July and October 2020 data on academic and professional staff working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic was collected from seven Australian and seven Canadian universities. The survey asked questions about working from home, productivity and workload, ability to conduct research and submit papers, university expectations, job satisfaction, career prospects, wellbeing and work-life balance.

2022 update

A total of 11,288 responses were received: almost half (47.2%, 5,323) from Australia; 639 from UNSW. A second wave was collected between November 2021 and May 2022. The total response from this phase was 3,338: 531 (15.9%) from Australia, 247 from UNSW - this data has not yet been analysed.

UNSW data from Wave 1 was analysed by Dr Ioana Ramia and Dr Andrew Wearing and found that:

Working from home

• A higher proportion of women (78.6%) than men (70.2%) at UNSW wanted to work from home half of the time or more “after” COVID.
• Among respondents who indicated they would prefer to work from home half of the time or more “after” COVID, 82.1% of respondents have children at home vs 74.8% no children at home.
• A higher proportion of female respondents at UNSW did not have a separate space at home to do university work (30.2% compared to 21.0% of male respondents), and almost a quarter of female respondents disagreed they had good equipment at home (23.3% compared to 13.8% of male respondents). Despite this, a higher proportion of female than male respondents indicated the university provided adequate support to enable them to work from home (63.4% compared to 56.9% of male respondents).
• A slightly higher proportion of women (71.7%) than men (66.4%) at UNSW agreed that what was expected of them in their job was clear.
• A lower proportion of UNSW female staff (38.7%) than male staff (47.1%) reported a decrease in happiness.

Teaching and research

• A much lower proportion of female teaching academics at UNSW reported decreased student satisfaction (37.7% compared with 60.5% male).

• Slightly higher proportions of women found it difficult to complete research papers (58.1% compared with 50.0% of men) and meet teaching expectations (40.0% compared with 31.8% of men).

• A much higher proportion of female than male teaching staff at UNSW felt there were unrealistic expectations around teaching (68.2% compared to 45.5%).
• A slightly higher proportion of male staff (58.5% compared to 53.0% for female staff) disagreed that they were satisfied with their career opportunities in the sector.

Several publications also came out of the research:

Chowan, J. & Pike, K. (2021). ‘COVID-19 impacts on faculty and staff: Changing the way employees work’. Global Labour Research Centre, York University.

Peetz, D. (2020). ‘Working from home during the pandemic’. Seminar delivered for the Centre for Work, Organisation and Wellbeing.

Peetz, D., Weststar, J., Campbell, S., O'Brady, S., Ramia, I., Ressia, S. Troup, C. & Werth, S. (2020). ‘Working from home during COVID-19: What do workers really want?’ The Conversation, November 4.

Weststar, J. & Kumar, S. (January 19, 2021). ‘Impact of COVID-19 on working arrangements and work experiences at Western University’. Scholarship at Western.

Photo credit: Unsplash 

Worlding With Oysters NAIDOC Week Making Circle with Australian Awards Students; Worlding With Oysters Digital Artist Conversation

Project Team 

Dr Sarah Jane Moore (Project Lead) 

Jackson Mann, Curator, UNSW Library 

Funding 

This project was part of the Women’s Wellbeing Academy’s first seed funding round in 2020, receiving $4000.

About the project 

With the WWBA Small Project Grant, Dr Sarah Jane Moore hosted a NAIDOC WEEK art making workshop with UNSW as part of the 2020 exhibition Worlding With Oysters at UNSW Library. The grant also supported the production of a recorded interview between Dr Sarah Jane Moore, Dr Laura Parker and Library Curator Jackson Mann which explored the roles of the Women in STEM & Women in the Arts movements and the significance of embedding Indigenous knowledge into scientific practice. The full 30-minute interview is available on the Library’s Online Exhibition.

For more information about this project, contact Dr Sarah Jane Moore or visit 

2022 update

The WWBA funding was a confidence booster and enabled me to travel to the mainland and meet with my research partner Laura Parker, colleague Brendan Burns, curator Mr Jackson Mann and digital collaborator Anton Rehrl. 

The funding was a gamechanger as it re-connected me with my support systems and enabled me to take a break from sole parent duties and focus on delivering, interacting and reflecting on my digital exhibition at the library.  The funded outreach session that I gave to International postgraduate students was both nourishing and impactful to my future practice as I enjoy presenting and performing and often regard myself as an interdisciplinary, intersectional place-based performance artist. The stories and ideas that the students shared with me whilst engaging within the exhibition space on campus have been embedded and woven into the monologues of my next live theatre show Behold, Belong, Become. This live theatre story song cycle will be performed with Tasmanian musician Oliver Gathercole in 2023 in Europe on invitation from Middlesex University and Professor Jayne Osgood.

School of Biotech Biomolecular Science ally, colleague and supporter Associate Professor Brendan Burns purchased one of the 6 visual art pieces from the Worlding with Oysters collection during the visit and that was really exciting for me and had great impact.

Living remotely in lutruwita Trowunna Tasmania during COVID required me to develop different ways of working through and with digital art practice and I believe that my work has strengthened through this time. I began to acknowledge the loneliness, embrace the isolation and engage in newly iterated hybrid digital/hand on performance art making and workshops. 

After working with Indigenous Scientia Fellow Dr Laura Parker and learning about her groundbreaking work with oysters I was a funded artist in residence in BEES through the prestigious Synapse art residency program. Funded through the ANAT network, Synapse enabled me to focus, take time to develop work without restrictive outcomes-based parameters and experiment, be curious and learn from scientists.

This year, I was successful in submitting an expression of interest to be one of the seven selected artists and collectives to work in residence at the Bondi Pavilion, which allowed me to develop Behold, Belong, Become. The show navigates my oyster, river and ocean journeys and stories the last three years of living and working remotely through song, monologue and music.

To commission a work, book a workshop or create a connection with Dr Sarah Jane Moore, please reach out on Dr Sarah Jane Moore or follow the blog

Image supplied by Dr Sarah Jane Moore