International Women’s Day

Students and staff are invited to attend the annual IWD Symposium. In honour of the IWD 2026 theme of "Balance the Scales", this panel event celebrates the University’s contributions to advancing gender equality through education and research.

UMSU brings together an exciting lineup of performances, powerful conversations, and meaningful experiences — all in one unforgettable day.

Professor Pip Pattison AO, Emeritus Professor at the University of Melbourne and the University of Sydney shares insights on social networks and community wellbeing and resilience.

University House will host its annual IWD breakfast with a panel. 7.30am Wednesday 4 March.

Join Professor Liz McKinley, Deputy Dean, Faculty of Education, and a panel of Indigenous female leaders as they respond to the theme, “Balance the Scales”.

This informal Architecture, Building and Planning event uses the metaphor of the seed to celebrate the regenerative, sustaining, and city-making contributions of women in the built environment.

Reflect on the “invisible load” at work and study, mentoring, and care. Exhibition and guided discussion on fairness and shared responsibility.

Join Professor Leah Ruppanner as she challenges assumptions, sparks dialogue, and debunks gender myths.

A newly designed synthetic gel is helping test potential treatments for endometriosis, bringing us closer to taking drug discoveries from the lab to the clinic.

Women in Afghanistan aren’t waiting for the system. They're building their own.

The Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) survey shows women retire slightly younger than men, with more caring responsibilities for grandchildren, and with much less superannuation

The movie resonates with the fourth wave of feminism in South Korea and its impact on media, whereby audiences are hungry for stories of women taking agency rather than simply enduring hardship.

Mattel’s latest doll has stirred conversations about the commercialisation of autism, but the benefits of this kind of representation cannot be understated.

By listening to women’s voices and investing in targeted research, Australia is taking important steps towards creating a more equitable healthcare system.

Migrant and refugee women in Australia are facing high levels of workplace sexual harassment and racial discrimination with little protection.

Historically, medical research has excluded women as too complex. But a new study is investigating how the brain may drive alcohol misuse differently between the sexes.

The University of Melbourne has honoured pioneering 95-year-old mathematician and statistician Alison Harcourt (nee Doig) AO by naming a seminar room after her.

Professor Cordelia Fine speaks with Kathryn Laurentis about the benefits of studies in History and Philosophy of Science, and her current project uncovering women’s early contributions to engineering in Australia.

Discover more amazing research relating to women and gender on the University's award-winning research news website.

Author Monique Grbec has been announced as the 2025 Joyce Thorpe Nicholson Creative Fellow, an initiative of Archives and Special Collections, and one of the largest cultural collections at the University of Melbourne.

Theatre maker Amy Sole (they/them) was jointly awarded the 2025/2026 Hutchinson Indigenous Fellowship and Residency at the Victorian College of the Arts.

Six academics from across the University were celebrated as award winners in the 2025 Young Tall Poppy awards, with one being named ‘Victorian Young Tall Poppy of the Year.’

PhD students studying in the School of Computing and Information Systems in the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology were awarded 2025 Google PhD Fellowships.

Three researchers from the University of Melbourne and partner organisations have been recognised at the 2024-25 Premier’s Awards for Health and Medical Research, which celebrates Victoria’s most talented early-career researchers.

Professor Marilyn Lee Lake AO, FAHA, FASSA, Honorary Professorial Fellow at the Faculty of Arts has been elected as a Fellow for the British Academy in recognition of her contribution to the humanities and social sciences.

Associate Professor Renata Borovica-Gajic has been awarded the 2025 Women in AI Award in the ‘AI in Data’ category for the Asia-Pacific region.

Dr Claire Leppold has received an Australasian Women in Emergencies award for her pioneering work in emergency management and disaster resilience.

Professor Emerita Marilys Guillemin from the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences was presented a Highly Commended award in the Lifetime Achievement category at the 2025 Science in Australia Gender Equity (SAGE) Awards

Adele Roeder, a recent Bachelor of Environmental Science graduate from the Faculty of Science and Wattle Fellow, was named the winner in the Student Champion category at the 2025 Green Gown Awards Australasia.

Engineer and occupational hygienist Ms Kate Cole OAM, founder and Director of Cole Health, has been recognised for her stellar work in health and safety advocacy in engineering.

Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology Professors Ying Tan and Christina Lim have been elected as Fellows of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering

Dr O’Donnell of Melbourne Law School has won an Academy of Social Sciences in Australia Paul Bourke Prize for Early Career Research in the field of law, history and philosophy.

Professor Lindiwe Majele Sibanda, a globally recognised leader in food security, climate resilience and sustainable agriculture, and Professor Elizabeth Blackburn, a Nobel Laureate and pioneer of molecular biology, were conferred with the University’s highest honour.

From a singing scientist to a paediatric infectious diseases doctor, five remarkable women from the University of Melbourne have been inducted into the Victorian Honour Roll of Women.

Head of the School of BioSciences, Professor Margaret (Margie) Mayfield, has been recognised as a 2025 Fellow of the Entomological Society of America.