Women bashing: An urban Aboriginal perspective

ABORIGINAL people in urbanised Australia experience violence on a daily basis. This violence ranges from the psychological (the covert hostility of the corner shop, the denial of the Aboriginality of fair-skinned or urban Blacks) through to the physical brutality of the criminal justice system. For Aboriginal women and children this daily violence is not only public but also has a private, B1ack-on-B1ack dimension. The Aboriginal home may be some refuge from the slights of white Australia but this is cold comfort to women for whom being 'flogged up' by their partners is so ordinary an event as to be unremarkable.

Chlamydial infertility in women: Diagnosis, epidemiology and immune response

This project primarily focused on the development of a novel, non-invasive peptide-based ELISA to diagnose C. trachomatis-related infertility in women. In this study, an in silico approach was applied to identify and design novel peptide antigens that are specific to women with C. trachomatis-related infertility. The serological assay was developed such that it could potentially replace invasive techniques for early infertility investigation. The thesis further investigated the sero-prevalence of chlamydial infertility in women from a low-resource, high prevalence setting. In addition, the thesis also identified immune markers that were associated with the C. trachomatis-related infertility in women.

Long-term effects of physical activity level on changes in healthy body mass index over 12 years in young adult women

Objectives To examine the effects of overall level and timing of physical activity (PA) on changes from a healthy body mass index (BMI) category over 12 years in young adult women. Patients and Methods Participants in the Australian Longitudinal Study on Women's Health (younger cohort, born 1973-1978) completed surveys between 2000 (age 22-27 years) and 2012 (age 34-39 years). Physical activity was measured in 2000, 2003, 2006, and 2009 and was categorized as very low, low, active, or very active at each survey, and a cumulative PA score for this 9-year period was created. Logistic regression was used to examine relationships between PA accumulated across all surveys (cumulative PA model) and PA at each survey (critical periods PA model), with change in BMI category (from healthy to overweight or healthy to obese) from 2000 to 2012. Results In women with a healthy BMI in 2000, there were clear dose-response relationships between accumulated PA and transition to overweight (P=.03) and obesity (P<.01) between 2000 and 2012. The critical periods analysis indicated that very active levels of PA at the 2006 survey (when the women were 28-33 years old) and active or very active PA at the 2009 survey (age 31-36 years) were most protective against transitioning to overweight and obesity. Conclusion These findings confirm that maintenance of very high PA levels throughout young adulthood will significantly reduce the risk of becoming overweight or obese. There seems to be a critical period for maintaining high levels of activity at the life stage when many women face competing demands of caring for infants and young children.

Aaishah’s choice: Choosing home education in the Muslim community

In Australia, the decision to home educate is becoming increasingly popular (cf. Townsend, 2012). In spite of its increasing popularity, the reasons home education is chosen by Australian families is under-researched (cf. Jackson & Allan, 2010). In addition, the decision to home educate among minority groups, such as Australian Muslim families, is absent from the literature. This paper reports on an interview with one Muslim mother who chose to home educate her children. An in-depth, qualitative interview was conducted with Aaishah (pseudonym), a mother who lived in one of Australia’s most populated cities. Data were analysed using the Discourse Historical Approach to Critical Discourse Analysis. The analysis revealed that there were similarities between the discourses of Christian parents described in the literature, in terms of the reasons Aaishah had given for her decision to home educate. In particular, analysis reveals Aaishah’s fears about schools, their negative experiences on her children and her hopes for her children’s futures.