Literature professor, novelist and breast cancer survivor Brenda Walker won this year’s Kibble Literary Award for Women Writers for Reading by Moonlight – a memoir of her illness. It is her second Kibble win and comes a year after her mother, Shirley Walker, won the award for her own memoir The Ghost at the Wedding. Kristel Thornell’s historic fiction Night Street won the Dobbie Literary Award for a first-published female writer…

Dr Kerry Arabena, CEO of the Lowitja Institute and an inaugural director of the National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples, is the first Indigenous Australian to receive the J.G. Crawford Prize for academic excellence at the Australian National University. At the same graduation ceremony Megan Davis, Australia’s first Indigenous woman appointed to a UN body, was one of two Indigenous graduates to receive their Doctorates…

Girls took out six of the 17 category awards in the Prime Minister’s Awards for Skills Excellence in school-based vocational education. The PM’s awards recognise the highest achieving Vocational Student Prize winners which, together reward the country’s top students taking trades-related training in secondary school…

International and NSW cricketer Lisa Sthalekar has been appointed to the General Executive of the Australian Cricketer’s Association (ACA), becoming the first woman to take a position in the association’s main governing body. As well as her long-time on-field career, she has been a member of the Women’s Executive for some time and spent the last eight years at Cricket NSW working in game development, including her current role as women’s Youth Programs Manager…

Fiona Simpson, an outspoken voice of NSW farmers’ campaign over mining access to agricultural land, became the first female President of the state’s Farmers’ Association in July. She took over the presidency with a winning 232 votes over incumbent Charles Armstrong’s 147 and attributed her win to the members’ appetite for organisational change…

Increasing the number of women in senior roles in sport has been given a boost with the latest round of Federal Government Sports Leadership Grants and Scholarships. Grants from the $400,000 fund will be distributed to 22 organisations and 29 individuals and another 15 women will receive individual sport leadership pathway scholarships…

Darriea Turley, Rosemary Norman-Hill and Kaylene Rawlings Hunter will be heading to New York early next year as Australia’s representatives to the next session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) – the major global policy-making organisation dedicated to gender equality and advancing and empowering women….

Girls’ education in Afghanistan is still a challenge, although it has improved significantly from the restrictive days of the Taliban when just 5,000 girls attended school in 2001. By 2010 almost 2.4 million were enrolled. Continuing military offensives and instability in the region make normal life difficult and girls still face Taliban threats for attending school, but amid the turmoil, Australia has helped establish the new Malalai Girls School in Tarin Kot…

NAIDOC Week celebrates the history, culture and achievements of Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Three Indigenous women – intellectual property lawyer Terri Janke, Indigenous history keeper Carolyn Briggs and fibre artist Robyn Djunginy – were honoured for their outstanding contributions to promoting Indigenous culture and issues and improving the lives of Indigenous people…

Australia’s Samantha Stosur won her first singles grand slam tournamentat the US Tennis Open last month. Her 6-2, 6-3 win over 13-time grand slam champion Serena Williams comes six years after Stosur garnered her maiden doubles and mixed doubles grand slam titles and is a milestone for Australian women’s tennis – it is 31 years since Australia’s last woman (Evonne Goolagong Cawley) held a singles grand slam title and 38 since Margaret Court won the country’s last women’s US Open…

The Australian Diamonds claimed their tenth World Netball Championship title… just. They scored the winning goal on their final shot at the end of 14 minutes of extra time. Australia’s 58-57 win against New Zealand reflected a recurring scenario of close finishes between the trans-Tasman rivals that began with Australia’s 37-36 win at the very first World Netball Championship in 1963…

Fifteen year old Queenslander Ashleigh Barty is the new Wimbledon Junior Girls Champion, breaking a 31 year drought for Australia’s young tennis players and becoming the first Indigenous Australian to earn the title…

Some of Australia’s leading female technology professionals were acknowledged in the recent iAwards, the national information communication technologies (ICT) industry awards. Information security consultant Jo Stewart-Rattray was named Professional of the Year and strategic advisor Jane Treadwell received the industry’s Woman of the Year honour. Fifty-year technology veteran and women-in-IT pioneer Ann Moffatt was also inducted into the Pearcey Hall of Fame…

The Victorian Government’s health information initiative Better Health Channel has an iPhone and iPad application (app). Like its web-based namesake, the free mobile app provides comprehensive, easily understood and reliable information sourced from medical experts. Users can browse for health information, locate health services or look up important health contacts…

Dr Cathy Foley has been breaking through stereotypes since she was little. Unlike the ‘good girls’ in class she was a messy left-hander and bad speller. When other girls were planning hairdressing careers, she wanted to teach science – and when she turned to research she chose solid state physics. Today she leads a CSIRO Division and is a strong advocate for women in science…

Australian Women’s Weekly editor Helen McCabe will chair the new Positive Body Image Awards Panel. Body image is seen as a significant issue for young people and pressures to conform to unrealistic ideals can have serious impacts on individuals. The awards are one initiative to encourage more positive body image messages in industries often criticised for their limited portrayal of body norms…

Back in May the Federal Government promised $300,000 of extra funding for the six National Women’s Alliances. The Minister for the Status of Women Kate Ellis recently announced the details of the successful projects, which each receive $50,000…

The Federal Government has added an online portal to its 1800RESPECT phoneline service for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. The 24 hour website service (www.1800respect.org.au) allows users to chat online to a qualified counsellor about concerns they may have about sexual assault or domestic family violence…