Women’s health proved a popular subject for Bendigo students competing in a thesis-pitching competition on Thursday night.
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Masters students Kate Clarke and Hannah Slootjes, whose postgraduate research is putting the wellbeing of women front-and-centre, joined La Trobe University’s inaugural Head2Head contest.
The event gave students just three minutes to communicate the crux of their research using language laypeople could understand.
While admitting it was difficult to reduce their theses into 180-second-long soundbites, both women agreed it was important academia was made more accessible to the masses.
“Today brought personality to research. Make it accessible, make it exciting,” Ms Slootjes said.
An occupational therapist, Ms Slootjes used her three minutes to explain how she believed people in her profession could work alongside women who are pregnant or who have recently given birth.
The idea for her study came during her own experience of motherhood when she observed a need for different types of care than that provided by midwives and doctors.
Occupational therapists could help mothers handle sleep deprivation, nausea and the transition back to work, she said, steps that would also improve the experience of children.
“My theory is, if women are well – mentally, physically and also emotionally – then we can raise good people and we can improve the future of our society,” Ms Slootjes said.
While Ms Clarke’s research focuses on women in later life, particularly those who find themselves without housing, she found connections with Ms Slootjes’ project.
“All those attitudes and assumptions we make about motherhood, that’s what’s causing negative effects for older women,” she said, explaining separation from or the death of a partner can also cause upheaval in a woman’s living situation.
Over the next two years, Ms Clarke intends to identify the housing needs of Bendigo’s women and then understand how Victoria’s planning scheme addresses those needs.
She said housing and homelessness policies could prove to be outdated.
“We’ve been looking at it pretty much one way, so we need to take a look from a different perspective.”