By women for women: Australia's national women's health policy

Abstract

Australia is now in the sixth year of its National Women's Health Policy and Programme. It started when the women's movement broke the silence on women's experience and fuelled women's determination to do things for themselves as society was not providing what was needed. The knowledge base on women's health and the demands for change developed by women's health activists, taken up by a government with a strong social justice policy, led to a national consultation with Australian women in 1988 which lasted nearly two years. Groups and individuals representing more than a million women defined what they considered to be priority women's health issues: violence against women, reproductive health, mental health, occupational health, the health effects of sex role stereotyping, the health of carers, and the health of older women. A wide variety of services for women are now funded, including centres against sexual assault, health information, education and training programmes, and research and clinical services.