Spotlight on Women’s Health East
About Women’s Health East
Women’s Health East (WHE) is the regional women’s health promotion organisation for Melbourne’s eastern region. The region covers 7 Local Government Areas – Yarra Ranges, Knox, Maroondah, Manningham, Monash, Whitehorse and Boroondara. Melbourne’s east is a diverse and populous area that stretches from inner city suburbs out to semi-rural townships in the Yarra Ranges. Women’s Health East operates on the traditional lands of the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people.
Featured work: Specialist support for the Warburton Mountain Bike Destination gender impact assessment
Throughout 2022, WHE was engaged by Yarra Ranges Council to contribute gender equality expertise to the gender impact assessment for the Warburton Mountain Bike Destination project. The Warburton project is a world-class mountain bike destination in the heart of the Yarra Ranges. It is a multimillion-dollar project, with stage one having secured over $11 million in funding.
The Warburton Mountain Bike Destination project will have significant impacts on tourism, the local economy, the health and wellbeing of the community, and the environment. By 2031, the project is expected to have created 229 new local jobs and generated $48 million in regional spend. Post 2031, this project is anticipated to generate $31 million in regional economic spend each year. Under the Gender Equality Act 2020 (Vic.), a gender impact assessment was required of the project as it has a direct and significant impact on the public.
Early in the process, WHE delivered training to the Yarra Ranges Council team leading this gender impact assessment. This training was designed to build the team’s capacity to undertake a gender impact assessment and embed intersectional, gender transformative practice throughout the planning and implementation of the project.
WHE subsequently conducted an intersectional gender analysis of each stage of the project’s gender impact assessment, producing a series of comprehensive reports for Yarra Ranges Council. To support Yarra Ranges Council in this process, WHE’s expert review reports aligned strongly with the requirements of gender impact assessments under the Gender Equality Act 2020 (Vic.). Gender impact assessments support organisations to establish policies, programs and services that meet the different needs of women, men and gender-diverse people and ensure equal access to opportunities and resources for people of all genders.
WHE’s expert review reports included gender transformative recommendations for the project’s design and programming. For instance, recommendations highlighted how mountain bike trails, facilities and programming can be designed in ways that reduce access barriers and enable the participation and inclusion of women and girls in mountain biking.
WHE applied an intersectional gender lens to address the compounding impacts of discrimination and disadvantage. Recommendations considered the enabling factors and barriers to access and inclusion in mountain biking for women and girls, gender-diverse people, people with disabilities, people from migrant and refugee backgrounds, and people who experience other compounding forms of discrimination.
WHE also addressed the broader health, social and economic impacts of the project. The reports highlighted how project design, and organisational processes and policies, can challenge rigid gender norms and address gendered power imbalances. For instance, recommendations around social procurement practices, local job creation, and the equal representation of women in decision-making roles, were designed to support women’s economic participation and independence and the equitable distribution of the project’s economic benefits.
Informed by WHE’s comprehensive expert reviews, Yarra Ranges Council produced a gender impact assessment that included a breadth of intersectional, gender transformative measures. By implementing the recommendations in the gender impact assessment, Yarra Ranges Council will ensure that people of all genders can equitably share in the health, social and economic benefits of the Warburton Mountain Bike Destination.
To find out more about Women’s Health East’s work, visit: https://whe.org.au/
