The Country Women's Association (CWA) of NSW has released the findings of its second inaugural Annual Women's Survey, with some clear messages emerging: access to essential health services, secure housing, economic participation, safety, and connection remain stubbornly unequal for women outside metropolitan NSW.
Building on the inaugural 2024 survey, the 2025 survey provides a valuable year-on-year snapshot of women's lived experiences across NSW, highlighting not only what women are worried about, but what they believe would make a real, practical difference in their lives and communities.
The 2025 survey opened in August last year and closed at the end of October, with more than 750 responses from women of all ages, and from all corners of the state.
"Many of the issues that stood out in this latest survey have been painful ongoing realities for rural and regional communities for too long, and we're looking for a response from the NSW Government. We've been asking questions of the relevant ministers around many of these concerns, including healthcare, housing and community safety. It's time for a real commitment to help start improving the likes of specialist wait times and crime rates and we hope to see this reflected in the upcoming State Budget," Tanya said.
"This is more than just a data collection exercise for us, this survey is about visibility and accountability and providing us with real evidence and real stories from women all over NSW to help inform our advocacy efforts on the issues that matter," said Tanya Jolly, President of the CWA of NSW.
The survey focused on women living in regional, rural, and remote areas of NSW with questions on health, safety, housing, finance, infrastructure, education, and empowerment.
Health and housing concerns topped the list for many respondents. On healthcare, respondents said the most significant barriers were limited access to local GPs and closed patient books, long wait times for both primary and specialist care and rising out-of-pocket costs and reduced bulk billing. Women in regional and remote areas reported having to travel regularly to access basic services, compounding cost, time, and stress.
More than 50% of survey participants said access to primary healthcare services like GPs was the greatest barrier to staying healthy in their community, 25% saying access to specialist healthcare services like mental health support was the biggest barrier.
On housing, 48% of respondents said the high cost was the most significant barrier for women in their area accessing affordable, secure, and suitable housing. Many respondents said more availability of affordable housing would make the biggest difference to housing for women in their community. More secure and stable rental options and housing assistance and eligibility settings that better reflected regional cost pressures and employment realities were highlighted as other measures that could make a real difference.
In other results:
- Almost 30% of respondents said crime and property theft (eg. break-ins) was the biggest barrier to feeling safe in their community, with another 29% identifying gender-based violence.
- Cost of living pressures and employment challenges were highlighted as major barriers to economic participation, with job availability and security (53%), wage inequality and discrimination (16%) and cost and availability of childcare (12%) the biggest challenges for respondents in achieving financial security or stable work.
- On infrastructure, respondents said gaps - poor road conditions and maintenance (35.5%), limited or unreliable public and community transport (20.5%) and patchy mobile and internet coverage (16%) - affected their daily life, safety and independence.
- Social isolation remained an issue for respondents, particularly for older women, new residents and women living alone.
Some of the comments women were able to make as part of the survey included:
- "If we had regular doctors it would help, doctors come in on contract for say 3 months and then you have to start again with another"
- "Inaction on affordable housing has resulted in a lack of rentals in regional areas"
- "In the wider community, I would say women's safety is still not taken seriously enough, especially in regional towns"
- "I have come through an abusive relationship. My financial situation has been devastating and the lack of affordable housing, childcare and secure work makes recovery almost impossible"
- "Without Starlink wifi we would have NO connectivity at all, mobile and internet services are totally inadequate"
- "I've just gone through full time caring for my husband and afterwards you realise how isolated you have become and how hard it is to reconnect".
"It's comments like these that really underline the pressures many of those who participated in our survey, and their communities, face. It's feedback like this that we'll take forward to argue for targeted, place-based solutions - not one-size-fits-all policies - that recognise the cumulative pressures facing women in regional, rural and remote NSW," Tanya said.
Tanya said the association would continue to release the survey annually in order to build a clear and concise picture of the issues affecting women and their communities and how that changed or evolved as time went on. The 2025 survey retained a consistent set of themes and a core group of quantitative questions to enable robust year-on-year comparison with the inaugural 2024 survey.
Download a copy of the report at: https://www.cwaofnsw.org.au/womenssurvey
