International Women's Day

International Women's Day 2024

ANZCA celebrates International Women’s Day (IWD) 2024 with the release of a guided discussion pack! Download now, share with your colleagues and get involved in discussing all things gender equity.

IWD 2024 pack

The discussion pack is accompanied by an audio introduction from the Dr Claire Stewart, Chair GESC. It encourages members to discuss the broad range of topics to keep the conversation going around gender equity, what it looks like, what the barriers in your local setting might be, and bring focus to areas such as mentoring, leadership, intersectionality, unconscious bias and the gender pay gap.

All with a view to raise further awareness of the challenges in achieving gender equity in the anaesthesia and pain medicine setting and in support of the United Nations IWD theme “Invest in Women. Accelerate Progress”.

We encourage you to share the discussion pack with your friends and colleagues, learn a little more about the barriers to achieving gender equity in your workplace, and look to future solutions you can implement locally to enact change.  

Previous years

International Women's Day 2023

For International Women's Day 2023, we spoke to four fellows who shared their experiences in medicine.  View their submissions in the booklet below.



International Women's Day 2022


In celebration of International Women's Day (IWD) on Monday 8 March 2022, ANZCA and the Gender Equity Sub-Committee (GESC) have spoken with fellows involved in gender equity research dating from 1993 to present day. Research participants include members of ANZCA and Australian Society of Anaesthetists (ASA). 

In the following five short videos, researchers touch on gender biases observed in survey outcomes and also share their reflections on some of the gender challenges anaesthetists face today – focusing on work composition, job satisfaction, and primary caretaking. Dr Jane Carter and Dr Claire Stewart also address a new version of the survey being distributed this year on behalf of ANZCA and what they expect to find from the outcomes.

Dr Bridget Effeney interviews Dr Di Khursandi on her gender research study (1993)Read Dr Khursandi's article here.

Dr Catherine Ashes talks about part time work and primary care takers in anaesthesia (2010)Read Gender Differences in Academia.

Dr Jane Carter and Dr Claire Stewart speak about their gender equity survey (2022) Dr Jane Carter discusses the purpose of the gender equity survey she will be conducting with Dr Claire Stewart. Dr Claire Stewart on how jurisdictional hospital systems might influence gender bias.

Last updated 17:45 12.03.2024