SAGE Athena Swan member organisations are navigating a growing range of gender equality legislation and funder requirements. Across gender equity reporting obligations, funder requirements, and safety and prevention law, the frameworks that apply to Australian universities, medical research institutes and government agencies have multiplied. And the compliance burden feels real. These obligations are not separate from your SAGE Athena Swan work. For organisations doing SAGE well, they are largely the same work.
This resource series has been developed to help SAGE members understand how their SAGE Athena Swan pathway supports compliance across each of these frameworks and to help them make that alignment visible within their institutions.
What’s in the series
The series includes practitioner-level guidance and executive briefings for individual frameworks, consolidated alignment maps, and a standalone document on the distinctive value of SAGE Athena Swan in a regulated landscape. Resources are organised across three themes:
Gender equality reporting obligations: WGEA Gender Equality Target Setting and the Victorian Gender Equality Act 2020 (CGEPS). For organisations subject to either or both of these reporting frameworks, SAGE Athena Swan generates the data, analysis and action plans needed to meet them.
Funder requirements: NHMRC gender equity requirements for Administering Institutions and Horizon Europe Gender Equality Plan eligibility (from 2027). For organisations seeking NHMRC funding or preparing for Horizon Europe association, SAGE Athena Swan and Cygnet applications provide the primary evidence base.
Safety and prevention obligations: the Positive Duty to Prevent Sex Discrimination and Harassment under the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth), the National Higher Education Code to Prevent and Respond to Gender-Based Violence, and psychosocial hazard management obligations under WHS legislation. SAGE Athena Swan addresses the structural and cultural conditions that these frameworks are designed to tackle.
Practitioner resources are designed for gender equity, diversity and inclusion practitioners, HR professionals, research administrators and WHS teams who need to understand how specific elements of their SAGE Athena Swan work map to compliance requirements, and what additional steps may be needed.
Consolidated alignment maps bring related frameworks together in a single landscape reference, showing section by section where your SAGE work satisfies multiple obligations at once. A separate map is available for each of the three themes above.
Executive briefings are designed to be shared with Vice-Chancellors, Deputy Vice-Chancellors and equivalent leaders. They provide a concise overview of each framework, how SAGE work contributes, what sits outside SAGE scope, and what action is needed at an institutional level. A single overarching executive briefing, SAGE Athena Swan: The Compliance Case, brings all seven frameworks together and makes the case for why SAGE membership is the most efficient way to address them.
Beyond Compliance: The Distinctive Value of SAGE Athena Swan makes the case for why the pathway matters beyond what it satisfies—the depth of data, intersectional analysis, causal understanding and continuous improvement that legislative compliance alone cannot produce.
We encourage all SAGE members to share these resources with the colleagues and leaders who need them. If you have questions or would like support applying this guidance in your context, please contact the SAGE team.
