Since 2021, UWA’s Women’s Health Minor graduates have gained opportunities to work in many different workplaces, including policy development, sexual health, and government.
Around half of the graduates have also progressed to Honours and higher degree study at UWA. Popular higher degrees for Women’s Health Minor graduates are the Doctor of Medicine and Doctor of Optometry programs.
Keen to change the world for the better, graduates have also gained knowledge and skills that have helped them personally.
Here’s what some of our graduates have said about the value of completing the Women’s Health Minor at UWA.
Kyra Murray
As one of the Women’s Health Minor’s first graduates in 2021, Kyra is currently working for the Department of Health and Aged Care in the ACT, where she manages the evaluation of the National Stillbirth Action and Implementation Plan.
Kyra is also completing a Master of Philosophy with the Australian National University Medical School, majoring in Medical Sciences. She found that the Minor’s focus on summarising and sharing health information has been useful.
“I give a number of presentations and the workshops back to my section and branch, allowing me to draw on the skills which I learnt to share health information formally to a general audience.”
The Minor also encourages networking with local women’s health groups and advocates. Kyra has used her Women’s Health Minor networking skills to good effect.
"When I joined the not-for-profit Diversity ACT as their Secretariat in February 2022, I helped guide some of their fundraising events to be co-aligned with other health organisations and charities.”
Neave Garland
Neave graduated with a Bachelor of Biomedical Science in 2023 and went straight to a research assistant role at the Kids Research Institute in Perth.
Her day-to-day work involves coordinating the Institute’s Preterm Consumer Reference Group, helping with governance documents, checking out health promotion studies, and helping with clinic research lung function testing on children.
“The consumer engagement training I learnt in the Minor is very useful! Also being able to write a lay summary has been really useful.
“I also can understand the grant applications that my team have applied for as I have the knowledge from the third-year Minor unit.”
Katie Tarling
Katie graduated in 2023 with a Bachelor of Biomedical Science minoring in Women’s Health. She’s currently in a graduate position with the Department of Health and Aged Care in the ACT.
“My work involves grant applications, and though they are not for women's health, the skills of IMED3301 are directly transferable to the work I do now.
“These units also built my confidence in communicating my ideas, which has been important as a new starter in an established team.
“My Minor encouraged me to join staff networks, including the Gender Equality Network. Even at entry level, I can contribute to a workplace culture that actively supports women's wellbeing,” said Katie.
Katie has also found that completing the Minor made her more able to talk to other women about their health in positive ways.
“I've had many, many conversations with friends about their health, body and wellbeing as women. Knowing you're studying women's health seems to encourage people to ask questions about their own 'unusual' experiences surrounding periods, contraception or mental health (largely disordered eating). Most of which were not unusual at all, but they needed to talk to someone else to confirm it.”
“This Minor is part of the reason people came to me for these conversations, but more importantly it's the reason I was capable and confident in continuing them.
“Either I had built the knowledge necessary or was able to find reliable information quickly, and help my friends do the same.
“These Minor units gave me a sense of agency in my health decision making that I have been able to share with my peers,” said Katie.
