Elucidating the increasing demand for genital cosmetic surgery among girls and women in Australia. This project will identify the psychosocial context of and public communication about the dramatic rise in female genital cosmetic surgery in Australia. Results will contribute to programs for sexuality and body image education, public health campaigns about normal genital diversity, and professional development for doctors and beauty therapists.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE200100357
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$426,925.00
Summary
Using feminist pedagogy to resist harmful messages of weight-loss dieting. This project aims to develop strategies to intervene in destructive weight-loss dieting norms aimed at women at a cultural level. Weight-loss dieting is a gateway to developing eating disorders; psychiatric conditions with a total socioeconomic cost of $69.7 billion in Australia and the highest mortality rate of all mental illnesses. This project uses feminist teaching methods to learn how to resist diet messages and crea ....Using feminist pedagogy to resist harmful messages of weight-loss dieting. This project aims to develop strategies to intervene in destructive weight-loss dieting norms aimed at women at a cultural level. Weight-loss dieting is a gateway to developing eating disorders; psychiatric conditions with a total socioeconomic cost of $69.7 billion in Australia and the highest mortality rate of all mental illnesses. This project uses feminist teaching methods to learn how to resist diet messages and create new messages to challenge their normalisation. The expected outcomes of this project are a novel non-diet framework and social movement to raise public awareness about the harms of dieting on physical and mental health. Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE210100151
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$431,891.00
Summary
Institutional abortion stigma as a barrier to equitable access. This project aims to understand how ingrained institutional abortion stigma produces barriers to access. Despite progressive law reform, access to abortion in Australia remains uneven and discriminates against the most marginal women. Institutions of law, government, medical training and health care significantly influence access to abortion. The nature and extent of this influence is under-researched and poorly understood. The proj ....Institutional abortion stigma as a barrier to equitable access. This project aims to understand how ingrained institutional abortion stigma produces barriers to access. Despite progressive law reform, access to abortion in Australia remains uneven and discriminates against the most marginal women. Institutions of law, government, medical training and health care significantly influence access to abortion. The nature and extent of this influence is under-researched and poorly understood. The project expects to identify and begin enacting the institutional-level change required for more equitable access to reproductive health care. The anticipated benefits include developing tools to optimise abortion access and, in so doing, helping to meet a goal repeatedly highlighted by State and Federal governments.Read moreRead less
Understanding and reducing the impact of sexual objectification. Violence and discrimination are serious problems facing women in Australia. This project examines how sexual objectification contributes to these problems, investigating the process from both the perpetrator's and the victim's perspectives. Using a multi-method approach, the project is expected to show how objectification hampers women in their personal and professional lives. Importantly, the project aims to go beyond identifying ....Understanding and reducing the impact of sexual objectification. Violence and discrimination are serious problems facing women in Australia. This project examines how sexual objectification contributes to these problems, investigating the process from both the perpetrator's and the victim's perspectives. Using a multi-method approach, the project is expected to show how objectification hampers women in their personal and professional lives. Importantly, the project aims to go beyond identifying the harm caused by objectification to start examining ways in which it can be reduced and women can protect themselves from its effects. This is expected to provide insight into a previously unstudied psychological cause of violence and discrimination against women, and map ways of reducing its harm.Read moreRead less
International students' sexual and intimate partner violence experiences. This project aims to generate data identifying the nature, circumstances and impacts of sexual and intimate partner violence against female international students in Australia. A range of cultural, social and structural issues may increase the vulnerability of female international students to gendered violence, leading to serious impacts on health and well-being. Yet, little is known about their experiences or how best to ....International students' sexual and intimate partner violence experiences. This project aims to generate data identifying the nature, circumstances and impacts of sexual and intimate partner violence against female international students in Australia. A range of cultural, social and structural issues may increase the vulnerability of female international students to gendered violence, leading to serious impacts on health and well-being. Yet, little is known about their experiences or how best to support them. This project intends to increase the safety of female international students by identifying their risk and protective factors, exploring their experiences and support requirements, and developing best-practice responses. Outcomes of this project include a new conceptual model and guidelines for service providers.Read moreRead less
Vulnerability and resilience in Indonesian women suffering from cancer. This project aims to investigate the social processes shaping middle-aged women’s vulnerability and resilience to cervical cancer in Indonesia. This project will generate a new interdisciplinary approach to investigating how different factors such as age, socioeconomic status and gender intersect to influence women’s vulnerability across their life course. The project will provide significant research training for Australian ....Vulnerability and resilience in Indonesian women suffering from cancer. This project aims to investigate the social processes shaping middle-aged women’s vulnerability and resilience to cervical cancer in Indonesia. This project will generate a new interdisciplinary approach to investigating how different factors such as age, socioeconomic status and gender intersect to influence women’s vulnerability across their life course. The project will provide significant research training for Australians and Indonesians, extensive international collaboration, and a better understanding of how to reduce health disparities among vulnerable groups.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE200100049
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$420,626.00
Summary
Breaking the silence! Addressing unmet support needs after miscarriage. This project aims to identify miscarriage support needs, establish priorities for research in miscarriage support and develop a platform for future studies targeting these priorities. This project expects to generate new knowledge around miscarriage support needs and research priorities, using an extensively tested priority setting methodology. Expected outcomes of this research include an understanding and critical knowledg ....Breaking the silence! Addressing unmet support needs after miscarriage. This project aims to identify miscarriage support needs, establish priorities for research in miscarriage support and develop a platform for future studies targeting these priorities. This project expects to generate new knowledge around miscarriage support needs and research priorities, using an extensively tested priority setting methodology. Expected outcomes of this research include an understanding and critical knowledge base of support needs, the Top 10 priorities for miscarriage support research and a platform for future studies targeting these priorities. This should provide significant benefits including a clear direction for future miscarriage support research and targeted funding and enhanced collaborative opportunities.Read moreRead less
Mothers' little helper: Alcohol use in working mothers. This project aims to generate unique insights into the strains that Australian working mothers face in their daily lives and the impact these strains have on their alcohol consumption. Using innovative methods to understand strains resulting from two major life domains, family and work, the project expects to generate new knowledge which can be used to develop interventions to address this important issue. The results of this study can prov ....Mothers' little helper: Alcohol use in working mothers. This project aims to generate unique insights into the strains that Australian working mothers face in their daily lives and the impact these strains have on their alcohol consumption. Using innovative methods to understand strains resulting from two major life domains, family and work, the project expects to generate new knowledge which can be used to develop interventions to address this important issue. The results of this study can provide significant benefits not only to the quality of life of working mothers in Australia but also has society-wide implications. This is due to alcohol use being a leading avoidable cause for productivity loss alongside other social, community and economic costs.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE170100080
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$363,000.00
Summary
Web-based help-seeking for intimate partner sexual violence. This project aims to understand women’s experiences of sexual violence perpetrated by an intimate partner, identify their help-seeking needs, and explore the use of the internet as a means of support. Although one in ten Australian women have experienced sexual violence by a male partner, with severe effects on wellbeing and quality of life, sexually abusive behaviours such as rape, assault, coercion and threats within relationships ar ....Web-based help-seeking for intimate partner sexual violence. This project aims to understand women’s experiences of sexual violence perpetrated by an intimate partner, identify their help-seeking needs, and explore the use of the internet as a means of support. Although one in ten Australian women have experienced sexual violence by a male partner, with severe effects on wellbeing and quality of life, sexually abusive behaviours such as rape, assault, coercion and threats within relationships are poorly understood. The project will provide women with an evidence-based, trauma-informed website that will help them name the abuse, provide initial support and promote help-seeking. This project expects to improve women’s safety, quality of life and connection to the community, raise awareness and reduce the costs of intimate partner sexual violence to society.Read moreRead less
Sexual well-being and ageing: a study of older Australian women. This research addresses important issues of ageism and sexism that together affect older women's health and well-being. The findings will inform the link between aging, sexuality and more general dimensions of health and well-being and advance our understanding of issues central to policy and services for older Australians.