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The Constance Stone Oration is awarded by the Victorian Medical Women’s Society yearly. The oration celebrates the past and present achievements of the VMWS and

In the lead up to the MDG summit in September at the United Nations, the latest information and materials on the MDGs has been released. Preparations for the Summit on the MDGs (to be held in New York on 20-22 September) officially started this month, when the General Assembly President started Government consultations on 4 March. Negotiations on an agreed action agenda for 2011-2015, to be adopted at the Summit, are scheduled to start in mid-April.

VMWS congratulates Dr Sally Cockburn who has been formally inducted onto the Victorian Honour Roll of Women for her remarkable leadership and contributions to the Victorian community. Biographies of the 20 inspirational Victorian women inducted in 2010 are described in the 2010 Honour Roll Booklet. Congratulations Sally!

The VMWS October 2009 newsletter is now available online. This issue features an article depicting the role of medical women during World War I, a medical student elective

The VMWS August September newsletter is now available online. This issue includes the Annual Lyceum Club Luncheon report, information about our upcoming “Think Pink” Breast Cancer

The Victorian Medical Women’s Society (VMWS) Press Release 13th April 2009

Child abuse perpetrators and the Medical Profession

Our mission as an organisation is to “promote the health of all Victorians, particularly women and children.”.  A GP from Eltham served 16 months in jail for sexually abusing boys aged 12 and 14 in the 1960s and 1970s, neither of these boys were patients. He was released from jail in November and has applied to be allowed to practise medicine once again. Allowing this doctor to practise again is a serious professional concern.

Worldwide, it is estimated that over 130 million girls and women have undergone some form of genital mutilation/cutting, and at least three million girls are at risk of undergoing the practice every year. Cultural practices such as female genital mutilation (FGM) are rooted in a set of beliefs, values, cultural and social behaviour patterns that govern the lives of people in society. The practice of FGM is not confined to a specific population group and it is not sanctioned by either Islam or by Christianity. The practice of FGM is common in parts of Africa, Asia and in some Middle Eastern Countries. It could be practiced among communities settling in Victoria from Cameroon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo and Uganda. FGM could also be practiced among certain ethnic groups from a number of Asian countries such as India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Pakistan, as well as among some groups in the Arabian Peninsula such as in Oman, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.1