Monash Progress Report 2020 – Goal 5
Monash University Progress Report 2020 on the Sustainable Development Goals

Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.
Research
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The Gendered Impacts of COVID-19 collection brings a gender lens to discussions around the COVID-19 pandemic response and recovery. Drawing upon the expertise and research from four centres across Monash University, this collection provides gender-sensitive analysis on peace and security, humanitarian settings and women’s rights, gender-based violence, the economy, caring and social reproduction responsibilities, and health and well-being.
The Monash Gender and Family Violence Prevention Centre is at the forefront of research and education aimed at preventing family violence. The centre is contributing to transformative social change aimed at ending family violence by providing an evidence base for policy change that better supports and protects those experiencing family violence and addresses the cultural and economic drivers that underpin it.
Monash Gender, Peace & Security Centre's vision is to build globally-recognised, gender-inclusive research evidence to deliver peace and security globally. Research informs scholarly debate, policy development and implementation, and public understanding about the gendered nature of insecurity and the search for peace.
In addition to research with international, government and industry partners, community-engagement with civil society, and academic publications, Monash GPS academics engage in undergraduate and graduate teaching, executive education and PhD supervision.
Mean Field Weighted Citation Impact of Monash Outputs: 1.56
Number of Monash Research Outputs: 265
The Graduate Certificate of Gender, Peace and Security enables leaders to better integrate gender perspectives into peace and security policy making at all levels – local, national, regional and global.
In 2020, 97 units directly related to SDG5 were offered across Monash University, with a total enrolment of 8,072 students.
The units highlighted below are a small sample of the units at Monash relating to gender equality:
Gender and Disaster Australia (GADA) promotes an understanding of the role played by gender in survivor responses to natural disaster, and to embed these insights into emergency management practice. The initiative of two Victorian Women’s Health organisations, Women’s Health Goulburn North East (WHGNE) and Women’s Health In the North (WHIN), it has worked in partnership with the Monash University Disaster Resilience Initiative (MUDRI) for more than a decade.
XYX Lab is a team of experienced design researchers exploring gender-sensitive design practices and theory. Their work operates at the intersection of gender, identity, urban space and advocacy. Through research, they bring together planners, policy makers, local government and stakeholders to make tangible the experiences of underrepresented communities in urban space and planning.
Monash signed up to Athena SWAN principles in 2015 to enhance gender equity across science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine (STEMM) disciplines. Following the mandatory 2.5 years self-assessment process, we were successful in attaining an Athena SWAN Bronze award in December 2018. The award coincided with the adoption of our Athena SWAN 2018 – 2021 Action Plan.
Respectful Communities works to create an equal and respectful community at Monash University, free from gender-based violence and harm, through a range of educational initiatives including workshops and events. Respectful Communities is committed to taking an evidence-based approach to social and cultural change on-campus, this sees them engage the Monash community at large to shift broader norms, practices and structures. This is partnered with a continuous cycle of monitoring and evaluation to inform future initiatives and ensure best practices.
519 women (39.8%) hold senior positions at Monash. Our current target is 42% by 2022, with accelerated improvements expected thereafter. As of 2020, women’s representation in senior professional roles reached parity; women’s representation on Monash University Council exceeded parity; women’s representation on VCEC grew exponentially from 28.6% to 41.7% over the past 6 years (up by 13.1%); women in leadership academic roles reached 38.7%, which is above their representation in senior academic roles (36.4%), highlighting concerted efforts to redress gender imbalance in academic leadership roles.