Dr Melina Georgousakis- Founder of Franklin Women

For International Women’s Day 2025, Women in Global Health-Australia is presenting a series of profiles of three notable women in Australia who have made an impact in elevating women in the health and medical sphere nationally and across the region.

We interviewed Dr Melina Georgousakis, who is the Founder and Director of Franklin Women, a professional community dedicated to supporting women working in diverse disciplines, career levels and organisations across the health and medical research ecosystem.

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Can you tell us about yourself? How did you get into the health and medical sector?

I am a medical research scientist by training and I followed a very traditional career path initially, starting with a Bachelor of Science, then honours and later pursuing PhD research on novel vaccines against Group A Streptococcus.

I’ve always known that I wanted a career where I could make a difference to health outcomes, though I wasn’t exactly sure how. My post-doc took me to India, which sparked an interest in public health and prompted my first career transition—from the lab to health policy. This shift opened up a whole new world of opportunities for me, as I began to better understand the diversity of roles, organisations and systems involved in the health and medical research pathway.

Now, I’ve hung up my ‘research hat’ and lead Franklin Women full-time. I’ve found that supporting the incredible people working within the health and medical research ecosystem is the way I can best make a difference to health outcomes.

You founded Franklin Women - what led you to set it up?

Franklin Women is a social enterprise with a mission to create a health and medical research ecosystem where women thrive. I started it back in 2015 when I was working in public health, driven by a personal need. I was in that important early-mid career stage and had big ambitions as a researcher, but I was also navigating major life events—meeting my partner, saving for a house, thinking about kids. For the first time, my life and career goals were colliding, but not in a good way.

What I needed was to expand my professional network in a safe and supportive environment, and I felt there must be other women like me who wanted to do the same. So, I created Franklin Women as a way to connect with the many brilliant women working in health across roles and disciplines.

I also knew I wanted to embed learning and development into what Franklin Women offers, creating events with speakers who could help with soft skill development—things outside of our technical expertise, which we know so well.

Now, Franklin Women is a credible organisation that connects thousands of women and their allies, as well as the workplaces that employ them, many of which have joined us as partners. I couldn’t be prouder.

Why do you think women/ gender matters when talking about global health?

When I started Franklin Women, I had no idea how gender influenced health—especially global health.But now, I can’t unsee it.

Books like Invisible Women by Caroline Criado-Perez highlight how systems are often designed by men, which obviously impacts the experiences and outcomes for everyone. I think this is amplified on a global scale.

However, we are at a point now where we recognise that applying a gender lens to health research, policy and service delivery will not only benefit women, but will actually benefit everyone—especially in global settings where women’s roles at home and in the community are so influential.

What gaps do you see with regards to gender and health?

For me, especially given the focus of my work, the biggest gap is in the global health workforce.

We all know that women represent the largest proportion of this workforce, yet they hold fewer leadership roles and face multiple barriers to their participation at all career levels. These barriers hinder their ability to do their best work and make the greatest impact in their roles.

To address this, we need a two-pronged approach:

• Active measures to provide capacity building and support systems for women in these roles right now, so we don’t lose their talent and passion.

• Systemic change at a higher level—this involves financial investment but also people power. I truly believe the greatest way to drive change is through individual actions.

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What do you believe are the most pressing issues or priorities for women in global health right now?

I think it is closing the gender health care gap which is of course linked to women’s representation in the workforce.

Women’s research is underfunded and gender is often not considered when designing research –  when I was in the lab, all my research was based on male mice. Women are inadequately included in clinical trials, policies are not written with a gender lens and healthcare services are not designed with women in mind.

As a result, despite women living longer, they often experience poorer health outcomes than men. This is simply inequitable healthcare.