Stronger every step: Celebrating Women’s Health Week

What better time to reflect and focus on our health than Jean Hailes Women’s Health Week (1-5 September 2025 ).

This year’s theme is Say yes to you, a theme to empower women to take control and prioritise their health and wellbeing. Each day of Women’s Health Week spotlights an important aspect of women’s health and wellbeing:

Every check matters: prioritising regular health screenings
Take the lead: find your voice in healthcare appointments
Heart smart: recognising how heart disease affects women
Pain to power: understanding pain isn’t “just part of being a woman”
Be kind to your mind: emphasising mental wellbeing as being as important as physical health

Physical activity plays an important role in many of these. Physical activity:

Builds strength and balance
Improves sleep quality
Boosts energy levels
Improves mood and mental health
Reduces risk of chronic disease and falls
Helps with weight management

Challenges women face to being active

Despite the benefits of physical activity, many women find it challenging to be active enough to maximise the benefits. Women face several unique factors which create barriers to being physically active, particularly for the ‘sandwich generation’. Women of the sandwich generation often spend more time caring for children/grandchildren, as well as ageing parents compared to their male counterparts. Additionally, they may be juggling employment, their own health conditions and menopausal changes. In combination, this can leave women with limited time and energy to focus on their own health and wellbeing.

Moving with purpose: the Active Women over 50 study

The good news is it’s never too late to invest, or reinvest, in your health! Beyond conversations and awareness this Women’s Health Week, taking physical action is a powerful way to say yes to you.

We are currently running the Active Women over 50 study, a 6-month behaviour change program to help women aged 50+ get active in a way that works for them.

What the study offers:

Two telephone health coaching sessions to support women and develop a physical activity plan that suits their lifestyle and needs.
Motivational emails or SMS messages over 6 months that are designed to support women on their physical activity journey.
Access to a supportive website that contains trusted resources, evidence-based tips and inspiration for being active.
Access to a private Facebook group to connect with others in the study and share ideas, progress and challenges.

Why this matters

We all know being physically inactive can jeopardise our health, cause weight gain and increase risk of developing chronic health conditions. Being physically inactive also puts you at risk of falling, which is another issue you may not have thought of. Our research team has found that women with consistently lower levels of physical activity have a higher risk of falls in older age (Kwok WS et al.). With falls being the leading cause of injury hospitalisation in 2023-24 and the leading cause of injury deaths in 2022-23 (AIHW), this is a serious problem.

Being physically active is one of the best things we can do for our health and wellbeing. There are many benefits of being physically active: such as:

Improved mood, energy levels, sleep quality, and reduced stress and anxiety
Improved posture, mobility, balance, and reduced risk of falling
Better management of pain, arthritis and weight
Reduced risk of conditions such as heart disease or diabetes

We’re over halfway to 1,000 women - and the feedback has been fantastic. Join Active Women over 50 and feel the benefits of being active, with expert support! You’ll also be making an important contribution to research that aims to benefit women across the nation.

Who can join?

We are currently recruiting women for the Active Women over 50 research study and would love to have you join! There are only a couple of quick criteria to meet:

Being a woman aged 50 years or older
Living in the community in NSW, Australia
Currently do less than 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity each week
Wanting support to be more active

If this sounds like the right thing for you, head to the website to learn more and register your interest.

Written by Courtney West, Geraldine Wallbank and Prof Anne Tiedemann.