Category: In Real Life | IRL.

đź’Ś Feature. Life

Unfiltered. Emotional. Real.
Letters, Wisdom (clinically referred to as lived experience) , interviews, identity.
• Letters To…
• Confessions & Courage
• Love, Loss & Longing
• Only human (lived) stories,
• Interviews
• Poetry

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Arts & Culture Creative Business & Leadership Creative Capital Creative Survival Economic Independence & Women's Enterprise In Real Life | IRL. Innovation & Ideas Insight Intermission Legacy & History Popular Culture, Women & the Creative Economy Power & Privilege Smart News Stories The Almanac The Architecture of Women's Health The Future of Women's Work: Creative, Economic & Cultural Power The Reading Shelf Wellness Work & Money

Certification Is What Creates a Workforce

Australia’s creative sector is stalled not because of funding scarcity, but because no national certification system exists to turn practitioners into a recognised workforce. Using national data, this article explains why certification — not grants — is the foundation of a functioning creative economy, and how the CWA model provides the missing infrastructure.

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Creative Business & Leadership Creative Health & Wellbeing Creative Survival Economic Independence & Women's Enterprise Health In Real Life | IRL. Insight Intermission Legacy & History Popular Culture, Women & the Creative Economy Power & Privilege Science & Research Smart News Stories The Almanac The Architecture of Women's Health The Future of Women's Work: Creative, Economic & Cultural Power The Reading Shelf Wellness Work & Money

The High-Performance Load of Women

Women operate at elite-performance load every day while systems continue treating their strain as personal pathology. This evidence-based analysis exposes how society gives men high-performance infrastructure and gives women diagnostic questionnaires—and why systemic accountability can no longer be avoided.

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Blogs Creative Health & Wellbeing Creative Spark Creative Survival Field Notes, Observations & Case Studies Health In Real Life | IRL. Innovation & Ideas Insight Intermission Play Popular Culture, Women & the Creative Economy Smart News Stories The Almanac The Architecture of Women's Health The Future of Women's Work: Creative, Economic & Cultural Power The Reading Shelf Wellness

If Life Were Golf, Women Would Be Starting Four Suburbs Back

A humorous, relatable exploration of the Domestic Load Handicap (DLH) — a new model that uses real-world data to measure the domestic and mental load carried by women. This piece reframes women’s overwhelm as a predictable structural outcome, not a personal weakness, highlighting how DLH can transform women’s health, economic security, and daily life.

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Creative Business & Leadership Creative Capital Creative Survival Economic Independence & Women's Enterprise Field Notes, Observations & Case Studies In Real Life | IRL. Innovation & Ideas Insight Intermission Legacy & History Popular Culture, Women & the Creative Economy Power & Privilege Smart News Stories The Almanac The Future of Women's Work: Creative, Economic & Cultural Power Wellness Work & Money

This Is Not a Workforce Gap — It’s an Abyss

A national data review shows that 76% of unpaid labour performed by women creates an unmeasured economic abyss rather than a workforce gap. The CWA argues that Australia’s largest structural deficit is invisible creative and care labour, and proposes a certified creative workforce to transform and formalise this missing sector

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Arts & Culture Creative Business & Leadership Creative Capital Creative Survival Creativity Economic Independence & Women's Enterprise Field Notes, Observations & Case Studies Historical Contributions & Women's Science In Real Life | IRL. Innovation & Ideas Insight Intermission Legacy & History Popular Culture, Women & the Creative Economy Power & Privilege Smart News Stories The Almanac The Future of Women's Work: Creative, Economic & Cultural Power Wellness Work & Money

Australia’s Creative Economy Is Running on Empty

Australia’s creative economy is being held back by the collapse of its textile manufacturing base. With less than 1% of apparel textiles milled onshore and no national provenance certification, Australia risks losing its cultural, economic, and creative sovereignty. A real creative economy requires structure, manufacturing, and protected provenance — not symbolic celebration days.

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Creative Capital Creative Survival Economic Independence & Women's Enterprise In Real Life | IRL. Innovation & Ideas Insight Intermission Popular Culture, Women & the Creative Economy Power & Privilege Smart News The Architecture of Women's Health The Future of Women's Work: Creative, Economic & Cultural Power Wellness Work & Money

Not a Hobby Course.

Australia has 0% national certification for creative work, despite women forming the majority of creative and care-based labour. Global evidence from UNESCO, WHO, and WEF shows that creative practice requires structured pathways and professional accreditation to become a recognised workforce. The Creative Women’s Association proposes a national certification model to address this systemic gap.

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Creative Business & Leadership Creative Capital Creative Health & Wellbeing Creativity Economic Independence & Women's Enterprise Health In Real Life | IRL. Innovation & Ideas Insight Intermission Popular Culture, Women & the Creative Economy Power & Privilege Smart News The Future of Women's Work: Creative, Economic & Cultural Power Work & Money

Australia Has 0% Creative Workforce Standards

Australia is the only major economy with 0% national standards for its creative workforce, leaving creative practitioners without accreditation, pathways, or structural support. The Creative Women’s Association introduces Australia’s first national framework for creative excellence, transforming creativity into a recognised and accredited professional field.

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Art, Expression & Therapeutic Practices Creative Health & Wellbeing Creative Survival Creativity Gut Health, Microbiome & Women's Wellbeing Health In Real Life | IRL. Movement, Somatics & Body Awareness Science & Research Smart News Social Prescribing, Creative Health & Community Care Sound, Voice & Music in Health The Architecture of Women's Health The Power Source: Women’s Mental, Sexual & Creative Health The Reading Shelf Wellness Women's Physiology, Anatomy & Cycles

The Body Isn’t Modular. It’s Musical.

The gut and lungs aren’t separate systems — they’re in constant biochemical conversation.

As Dr. Vivek Lal and resbiotic remind us, when one is disrupted, the other follows. But at CWA, we’ve long stopped looking at the body as isolated organs — or even duos.

The real conversation includes the vagus nerve, the nervous system, and the stress circuits that shape how we breathe, digest, and create.
Women experience up to 76% more total stress burden than men — and it shows up biologically.
Not because women are weaker — but because the system asks us to carry more.

The solution isn’t self-regulation.
It’s system redesign.

Categories
Creative Health & Wellbeing Creative Survival Economic Independence & Women's Enterprise Health In Real Life | IRL. Movement, Somatics & Body Awareness Science & Research Smart News The Architecture of Women's Health Wellness Women's Physiology, Anatomy & Cycles

Stress-Load Cardiomyopathy

Takotsubo—“stress-load” cardiomyopathy—proves that overload is physiological, not poetic. When 80–90 % of cases occur in women who carry most unpaid work, the cure isn’t self-help; it’s systemic balance. Honour, in scripture and science, was never meant to look like exhaustion.

Categories
Creative Business & Leadership Creative Capital Creative Survival Economic Independence & Women's Enterprise In Real Life | IRL. Popular Culture, Women & the Creative Economy Power & Privilege Smart News The Future of Women's Work: Creative, Economic & Cultural Power The Power Source: Women’s Mental, Sexual & Creative Health Work & Money

If It Ain’t Broke… Then Why Are Women Still Hauling It?

Across every economy, women do 76% of the world’s unpaid labour yet control less than 20% of wealth and leadership. The system isn’t “broken”—it’s built this way. “If It Ain’t Broke… Then Why Are Women Still Hauling It?” exposes the 80/20 illusion and asks why, in 2025, women are still carrying the weight of progress that refuses to arrive.