This International Women’s Day, my hope is simple: that women are truly listened to.
Gender equity in health will only be achieved if we listen to women – and believe them. This is not a revolutionary concept, but unfortunately one that continues to be tested. Media coverage over the past two weeks, detailing women’s distressing experiences of gynaecological surgery, has once again brought into sharp focus the consequences of women’s voices being dismissed or minimised. It has served as a reminder that listening is not a courtesy in healthcare – it is a responsibility.
At Women’s Health Victoria (WHV), we hear from women every day about what it means to navigate a health system that too often does not work for them. Through our statewide, non‑clinical services, we support thousands of women each year to access care, make informed decisions, and find their way through a system that is fragmented and, at times, overwhelming.
Services like 1800 My Options, Victoria’s free and confidential sexual and reproductive health phone line, exist because women need evidenced-based, pro-choice, non‑judgemental information and support. Callers reach out to us when they are uncertain, experiencing obstruction given the stigmatisation of abortion as a form of healthcare, experiencing financial barriers or simply want to understand their options. The first thing they receive is not advice or instruction, but someone who listens – to their circumstances, their concerns, their questions and what matters to them.
Similarly, Counterpart, our peer support service for women with cancer, is built on the understanding that lived experience is integral to care. Women consistently tell us that being able to speak with someone who understands and who has walked a similar path, reduces isolation and restores a sense of control at a time when so much feels uncertain. It is a powerful reminder that listening is not passive – it can be deeply validating.
Across all our work, listening to women is a common theme. Women are not asking for special treatment. They are asking to be taken seriously. They are asking for their symptoms to be believed, their questions answered, to be treated with dignity, and their autonomy and rights respected.
This was articulated powerfully at this week’s Royal Women’s Hospital International Women’s Day event, where Karinda Taylor, CEO of First Peoples’ Health and Wellbeing, spoke about the central role of trust in healthcare. Trust, she said, is established when women feel both respected and understood. “A win for us is when women come back,” she said. “They come back because they feel safe and heard.”
That insight is critical. When women do not feel heard, they disengage – sometimes from services, sometimes from care altogether. The consequences are real. They show up in poorer health outcomes, delayed diagnoses, and widening inequities, particularly for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, women with disabilities, migrant and refugee women, and those facing socioeconomic disadvantage.
We must remember listening to women is not optional. It is fundamental to building a health system that is safe, effective and equitable. It requires more than individual goodwill. It demands systems, services and policies that centre women’s lived experiences and respond to them.
This International Women’s Day, as we reflect on the challenges laid bare in recent weeks, we must recommit to the most basic, and most powerful, action we can take. Listen to women. Believe them. And build a health system that does the same.