Ahead of our International Women’s Day Research Panel on 9 March, we’re chatting with some of our panellists – from an advocate for more women in university leadership, to an environmental engineer tackling menstrual stigma and fighting for better healthcare access.
The research panel, chaired by Pro Vice-Chancellor Academic Advancement and Diversity, Professor Fiona McGaughey, showcases the work of women researchers at UWA whose research benefits women.
“We know that gender inequality remains an entrenched and wicked problem,” Fiona explains.
“Researchers have a critical role to play in tackling wicked problems. It is important we showcase and celebrate the important, substantive research that is being undertaken for women, by women.”
Meet the panellists:
Dr Dani Barrington
Dani Barrington began her professional life as a public health engineer, working for a non-government organisation in Nepal – but soon switched career paths.
“I figured out pretty quickly that the technical side of sanitation isn’t that interesting to me and isn’t really that difficult (don’t tell the engineers!),” she says.
“The much more difficult aspect, and what I’m passionate about, is how people access sanitation that improves their wellbeing in a meaningful way. This isn’t always about having a fancy technology or the cheapest solution; it is part of a complex interplay of sociocultural factors, health needs, sustainability, cost and planning.”
She began focusing on toilets, and then on menstrual health, including understanding how people manage their periods, as well as examining menstrual stigma and the persistent discrimination faced by people who menstruate.
In fact, she’s so passionate about menstrual health that she became a founding board member of Australian charity Share the Dignity. Dani initiated their campaign to lobby the Australian Government to remove the tax on menstrual products, led the charge to provide free menstrual materials to remote Indigenous communities, and spearheaded the development of the charity’s first Dignity Vending Machines (DVMs), which dispense free period products. The first DVM in Western Australia was even named ‘Dani’ in her honour!
More recently, she turned a troll’s disgusting comment on one of her posts into an advocacy campaign to get people talking about and normalising menstruation (complete with band merch!).
As for what she’s learnt from her time in academia, practice and advocacy? “It’s more important to be respected than ‘successful’,” she says.
Professor Caitlin Wyrwoll
Caitlin Wyrwoll’s curiosity about reproductive biology started at the age of four when her mum, pregnant with her brother, gave her a Women’s Weekly magazine on pregnancy and birth. Her fascination stayed with her and eventually led her to UWA’s School of Human Sciences, where she now holds a Stan Perron People Fellowship and is a research theme leader in the NHMRC Healthy Environments and Lives Network.
Her research group is investigating the impact of environmental change on maternal and child health, with a focus on drinking water quality and heatwave exposure.
“As I’ve grown older, I’ve become increasingly aware that while I encounter challenges, I also hold significant privilege, privilege that keeps doors open or gives me the ability to push them open. I try to use that position intentionally: to make space, create opportunities, and help ensure others can step through those doors too. Taking this broader view puts my own challenges into perspective and makes my work more meaningful and fulfilling,” she says.
“Someone recently told me they admire how I’ve progressed in my career as someone who chose academia alongside life, rather than instead of it. That really resonated with me. I’m most proud of my family and my broader community, and I’m grateful to be in a position where my work brings me genuine joy while still allowing space for the things that matter most.”
Her advice? “Stay true to your core values, and develop a clear sense of what success looks like for you, not for anyone else. Let that guide your choices.”
Professor Tanya Fitzgerald
Tanya Fitzgerald has an impressive CV – she’s Dean of the Graduate School of Education and has held leadership positions in universities across Australia, New Zealand and England, and visiting professor roles in Canada, Malaysia and South Africa.
The reason for her success? She never listened to anyone who told her she couldn’t.
“Whenever anyone told me ‘no, you won’t be able to do that’, my internal response was usually ‘just you watch me’,” she recalls.
“At home, school and university I was surrounded by strong women who pushed the boundaries and challenged the status quo. These experiences shaped my thinking about the work I wanted to do and the impact I hoped to have.”
She had originally wanted to be an actor or forensic scientist, but instead became fascinated by history.
“At university, I became an archive dweller, hunting out and retelling stories and bringing to life the feisty women who seemed to beckon to me from their letters, diaries, poetry and songs. Moving into academia, I was struck by the absence of women in leadership roles. I wanted to understand the history of women in universities, how they challenged the status quo, and the possibilities for change.”
Tanya believes it’s not what you do, but the impact you have on those around you, that is most important. She’s proud of how she’s pushed boundaries, and how this has influenced young girls and women in her own family, as well as the girls and women she’s taught and met.
She’s also an optimist.
“I believe we can change the world one step at a time, one action at a time,” she says. “If history has taught me anything, it is that change is possible, however incremental. And there is a long history of women at the forefront of change.”
Professor Pat Dudgeon AM
Pat Dudgeon, a Bardi woman from the Kimberley, was Australia’s first Aboriginal psychologist.
Her extensive research portfolio has included research on the health, social and emotional wellbeing of Indigenous Australian women and Indigenous LGBTQI populations.
In a recent podcast interview with Dr Tony Pisani, Pat describes how confronting the racism in the system sparked her mission to decolonise psychology and build a new framework called Social and Emotional Wellbeing, a model that places self, family, community, culture and Country at the centre of healing.
Last year, she won the Australian Mental Health Prize and in 2024 she was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.
Professor Dudgeon led the influential Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Suicide Prevention Evaluation Project, which produced the landmark 2016 report Solutions that work: What the evidence and our people tell us.
The report documented the role of colonisation and trauma in Indigenous suicide and emphasised the necessity of Indigenous-led cultural responses in prevention efforts.
A former Commissioner of the Australian National Mental Health Commission, Professor Dudgeon is Patron of the Australian Indigenous Psychologists Association.
The International Women’s Day Research Panel will be held on Monday 9 March from 10am to 11.30am at the UWA Indian Ocean Marine Research Centre Auditorium.
The event is supported by Graduate Women WA. All staff, students and community members are welcome.
Top image: Professor Caitlin Wyrwoll, Dr Dani Barrington, Professor Tanya Fitzgerald and Professor Patricia Dudgeon.