Women's health. Work. The space between.
A conversation about what happens when women's health, work and the systems around them collide.
The story is personal. The evidence is public. The problem is global.
Why this exists
Women should not have to become seriously unwell before somebody starts listening.
This is not about one diagnosis. It is about what happens when women are unwell, still searching for answers, still trying to work — and still expected to make sense of it all while the systems around them struggle to respond.
How many women are being managed for a performance problem when what they are actually experiencing is a health problem?
What looks like a workplace problem may actually be a woman desperately trying to hold herself together.
And how often does the workplace only understand what was happening after the damage has already been done?
This is not a niche issue.
The scale is already visible in public data. The question is whether workplaces are ready to recognise what that means.
Australian women by age 44–49
AIHW estimates around 1 in 7 (14%) women born in 1973–78 had been diagnosed with endometriosis by age 44–49.
Hospitalisation rate over a decade
AIHW reports the rate of endometriosis hospitalisations increased 23%, from 145 to 180 hospitalisations per 100,000 females, between 2015–16 and 2024–25.
Women worldwide
The World Health Organization estimates endometriosis affects about 10% — approximately 190 million — reproductive-age women worldwide.
ABC News reported on 28 August 2026 that more women are being hospitalised for endometriosis. The report drew on new AIHW hospital data. The numbers collided with lived experience — and this campaign began.
Read the ABC News article → | Read the AIHW release →
I kept saying: there is something else wrong.
I couldn't tell you what it was. My blood results were normal. My scans were normal. Doctors couldn't give me an explanation. On paper, there was nothing to explain how unwell I felt.
I started doubting myself.
I questioned whether I was imagining it, whether I was overreacting, whether maybe everyone else was right and there really was nothing else wrong.
My mental health began to spiral, eventually leading to an inpatient mental health admission. Even there, there was no explanation for what was happening beyond my symptoms being understood in the context of perimenopause.
When there is no explanation, it can become easy for everyone around you — and eventually even you — to accept that perhaps nothing is wrong.
But I knew my body.
My gut kept telling me something was being missed — that underneath the normal results, a storm was still brewing.
The signs are easy to misread.
Not necessarily disengagement.
Not necessarily unreliability.
Not necessarily poor attitude.
Not necessarily lack of effort.
Not necessarily lack of commitment.
Not necessarily inability to cope.
Women Working Well does not force the conversation.
It helps a woman become ready for it — and helps the workplace become ready to receive it.
My partner was there for the parts work never saw.
What happens at work comes home. The stress comes home. The uncertainty comes home.
“I watched someone I love get up every morning and decide, again, to go to work through it. That's not something you clock off from.”
His safety background kept bringing him back to one question:
What could a good workplace have realistically done differently?
That question is a large part of why Women Working Well exists.
The story is personal. The problem is global.
Women Working Well is not about one woman, one workplace, one diagnosis or one country.
It is about the gap between what women experience and what the systems around them are prepared to understand.
It is about invisible and fluctuating health conditions. Diagnostic delay. The pressure to keep functioning. Work design. Dignity. And the quality of the response when someone finally says: something is wrong.
I see this. I support this. This conversation matters.
A visible sign for what too often goes unseen.
The pin is designed to be more than a logo. It is a visible symbol of awareness, support and participation in a conversation that has remained invisible for too long.
It can be worn by a woman with lived experience. By a colleague. By a manager. By a partner. Or simply by someone who believes workplaces can do better.
Wearing it does not declare a diagnosis. It does not disclose a personal story. And it does not give anyone the right to ask for one.
What Women Working Well is building now.
The dedicated Women Working Well site goes further — with support for women, guidance for managers and organisations, research, evidence and the Global Women and Work Survey.
This conversation has grown beyond one page.
Women Working Well now has its own dedicated home — built around women's experiences, workplace response, evidence, research and the space between.
Women Working Well is an Inca Safety initiative.