Women Veterans Australia – Shadows to Spotlight Podcast Co-Design Survey

1) Podcast Themes & Topics

Please tick all topics you would be interested in hearing about.

A. Personal Stories, Identity & Motivation

From Service to Self: Reclaiming Confidence and Leadership - A conversation about rediscovering confidence, authority and leadership strengths after service, and carrying them forward into civilian life.

Living Your Values After Uniform - How women reconcile service values with post-service life, navigate values conflict, and build purpose-driven careers and contributions.

Telling Our Stories: Visibility as Recovery - Exploring storytelling through writing, speaking and creative expression as a way to be seen, heard, and understood, on women’s own terms.

Making Transition Work: What Actually Helped - An honest discussion about transition supports, finances, education and planning — what worked, what didn’t, and what women wish they’d known.

Flexible Pathways: Serving, Transitioning and Thriving - Women share experiences of SERCAT, flexible service arrangements, and non-linear career paths — and how these pathways shaped sustainable service and transition. Navigating SERCAT and flexible working while serving

“My service, my story” - Short-form lived-experience episodes where women veterans describe their service, transition and identity in their own words , unapologetically and authentically.

Translating Military Experience Into Civilian Impact - Practical stories about turning rank, skills and leadership into civilian language, navigating life admin, employment, and new professional identities.

When Service Ends Before You’re Ready - Exploring career loss, medical discharge, and unexpected transitions, and how women navigate identity, purpose and self-worth when service stops early.

Other

If other: please describe

B. Professional Growth & Career Reinvention

From Uniform to Opportunity: Translating ADF Skills for Civilian Roles - Demystifying how military skills, experience and leadership translate into civilian careers, and how women successfully advocate for their value.

2. Leadership Beyond Rank: From Corporal to Commander and Beyond - Exploring leadership journeys across ranks and roles, and how women carry operational leadership into new sectors and communities.

Building Your Own Path: Women Veterans in Business - Conversations with women who have started or scaled businesses, navigating grants, tenders, networks, and programs such as Phoenix Entrepreneur.

Learning Forward: Education Pathways After Service - How women veterans use RPL, scholarships and study pathways to pivot careers, build confidence, and open new doors.

Designing Work That Works: Flexible Employment for Women Veterans - Practical stories on negotiating flexibility, balancing care and work, and building sustainable careers that support wellbeing and performance.

Other

If other: please describe

C. Health, Wellbeing & Recovery

Finding Your Way: Navigating DVA with Confidence - Practical conversations about claims, supports and self-advocacy — helping women veterans understand the system and make it work for them.

Women’s Health Across the Service Lifespan - Exploring reproductive health, pregnancy, pelvic health and menopause — and why recognising women’s bodies and health needs is essential to dignified service and post-service care.

Understanding Trauma, Supporting Recovery - Open discussions about PTSD, moral injury, military sexual trauma and chronic stress — framed around understanding, recovery pathways and peer support.

Staying Connected: Suicide Prevention and Postvention - Conversations focused on connection, early support, community responsibility and caring for those affected, before and after crisis.

Movement as Medicine: Physical Rehabilitation and Sport for Wellbeing - How physical activity, rehabilitation and sport support mental health, confidence and reconnection after service.

Care Without Distance: Health Access for Rural and Remote Women Veterans - Exploring telehealth, community care and innovative models that bring support closer, regardless of geography.

Seeing the Whole Person: Neurodiversity and Veteran Health - Understanding neurodiversity in service and after — and how recognition and inclusive care models improve outcomes.

Living Well with Disability or Chronic Illness After Service - Stories about adaptation, advocacy and maintaining purpose while navigating injury, illness and long-term health conditions.

Other

If other: please describe

D. Systems, Policy, and Reform

What the Royal Commission Means for Women Veterans - Breaking down the Royal Commission’s findings through a women’s lens, what matters most, what must not be lost, and what meaningful implementation looks like.

Building a Better Defence Experience for Women - Who Serve A constructive conversation about what needs to change within Defence to enable women to serve safely, build careers, and stay the distance.

Designing Veteran Support That Works for Women - Exploring how DVA systems, services and communication can better reflect women’s lived experience and support whole-of-life wellbeing.

Flexible Pathways, Sustainable Service - Looking at SERCAT, part-time service, non-linear careers and transition strategies that allow women to balance service, family, health and longevity in Defence.

Security Beyond Uniform: Housing, Finances and Stability - Conversations about housing, financial wellbeing and homelessness prevention, focusing on early intervention, dignity and independence.

Recognising Women’s Service in Our National Story - Exploring barriers to recognition in commemoration, medals and public history — and how making women visible honours service more truthfully.

Other

If other: please describe

E. Community, Culture & Connection

Seen in Service: Making Women Veterans Visible in Our National Story - Exploring how women are represented in media, museums and ANZAC events — and why visibility matters for recognition, identity and public understanding.

Finding Your People: Peer Support That Truly Works - What effective peer connection looks like for women veterans, why some models succeed while others don’t, and how belonging supports wellbeing and transition.

Modern Military Families: Life in Dual-Serving and Diverse Households - Conversations with women in dual-serving relationships, same-sex families and contemporary military households about navigating service, transition and family life.

Many Identities, One Service: Diverse Women Veterans’ Experiences - Amplifying the voices of Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD), LGBTQIA+, First Nations and disabled women veterans, and exploring how intersectional identities shape service and transition.

Healing Through Connection: Sport, Creativity and Service Dogs -Stories about recovery and reconnection through movement, creative arts, and service dogs — approaches that build confidence, purpose and community

Creating Community Where You Are - Practical conversations on how women veterans start local meet-ups, build peer networks, and foster connection in ways that fit their communities.

Other

If other: please describe

2) Guests You’d Like to Hear From

Who would add value to these conversations and help amplify the voices and experiences of women veterans? (Select all that apply)

Who would add value to these conversations and help amplify the voices and experiences of women veterans? (Select all that apply)

If other, please describe:

Have you got any suggestions for speakers you would love to hear from?

3) Your Top Five

From the topics you ticked, rank the top 5 you MOST want in the podcast (1 = highest priority):

View Podcast Themes and Topics

4) Anything We Missed?

What would make this podcast meaningful, empowering, or useful for you — or for women veterans more broadly?

5) Stay Connected

Would you like to join our email list to get updates and opportunities?

Yes – please add me

Already subscribed

6) About You (Optional)

This information will only be used as part of our reporting on the co-design of this process.

Service Status (select all that apply)

Currently serving – Permanent

Currently serving – Reserve

Ex-serving / Veteran

Prefer not to say

Service Branch (select all that apply)

Army

Navy

Air Force

Other

Other (please specify):

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Women Veterans Australia – Shadows to Spotlight Podcast Co-Design Survey

Women Veterans Australia – Shadows to Spotlight Podcast Co-Design Survey

Take the Survey

1) Podcast Themes & Topics

A. Personal Stories, Identity & Motivation

B. Professional Growth & Career Reinvention

C. Health, Wellbeing & Recovery

D. Systems, Policy, and Reform

E. Community, Culture & Connection

2) Guests You’d Like to Hear From

Who would add value to these conversations and help amplify the voices and experiences of women veterans? (Select all that apply)

3) Your Top Five

4) Anything We Missed?

5) Stay Connected

6) About You (Optional)

News & Resources