Female-only swimming sessions save lives

Drowning is not about bad luck, he writes, but about water safety and removing structural barriers to swimming skills Mainul Haque.

WOMEN-ONLY SWIMMING SESSIONS are not a cultural luxury. They are an evidence-based public safety measure that many Australian women still lack access to.

Despite being on one of the driest continents on Earth, Australians live around water, from beaches to rivers to backyard pools. But drowning remains one of our most enduring and preventable public safety failures. 357 people drowned nationwide in the 12 months to June 2025; That’s the highest annual death toll in decades and about 27 percent above the long-term average. In the summer of 2024-25, 104 people lost their lives in rivers, beaches, swimming pools and inland waterways; This figure is about 14 percent higher than the average summer losses in the previous five years. Drowning rates in regional and remote areas were almost three times higher than in major cities. These deaths It occurred in every state and territory.

Drowning is often referred to as an accident. The data tells a different story. Children are drowning. Young people are drowning. Working-age adults are dying in the water. Older Australians face the highest drowning rates. Those born in Australia and those born overseas are drowning. Men and women are equally affected. While city residents drown, people in regional and remote areas face almost triple the risk. Rates are also higher in disadvantaged communities. These patterns are not random. They reflect unequal access to security.

Drowning is not about bad luck. This is largely about access to swimming skills and water safety training. Almost half of Year 6 students cannot swim 50 meters or tread water for two minutes; This is the minimum benchmark expected at the end of primary school. Adults who miss these skills at an early age rarely acquire them later, and the risk increases throughout life. For women, mothers and grandmothers, social, cultural, privacy, body image and safety factors often hinder access to swimming. As a result, many women and girls never learn to learn. to swim.

Public repositories assume that mixed environments are universally accessible. Not so for many women. Women from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, older women, trauma survivors, women with disabilities, and women with body image or safety concerns often avoid public pools for years or decades. Low participation leads to low swimming ability, which increases the risk of drowning. Evidence It shows that swimming skills and confidence in water are passed from mother to child. Children are more likely to learn to swim when their mothers learn to swim. Without these skills, the risk of drowning becomes embedded in families and communities. You can’t learn to swim in a pool you haven’t entered.

Women-only swimming sessions are not a cultural concession or lifestyle choice. These are a life-saving measure. Structural barriers such as lack of privacy, mixed-gender environments, body image, safety concerns, and cultural norms prevent some women from participating. Where there are women-only sessions, participation immediately increases. Women who have never swum, walked on water, or learned basic survival skills are starting to learn for the first time.

An early trial at the Canberra Olympic Pool in October 2019 demonstrated the effect. The ACT Government ran a one-month gender-specific programme. Women-only sessions were held on Saturdays, and men-only sessions were held on Sundays. A total of 274 women and 134 men participated. There were 81 women registered to learn swimming lessons. The program targeted those unable to participate in mixed-gender environments.

Other states have similar programs. In Western Australia, Royal Life Saving WA runs Women’s Only Swim and Survival programs with female instructors and culturally appropriate lessons on a weekly basis for eight weeks in metropolitan and regional centers during school terms. In Victoria, women-only sessions are offered at leisure centres, including the multicultural Swim Association program at Maribyrnong Aquatic Centre, free lessons at Melbourne City Baths and programs in Hume and Ascot Vale. All designed to build trust, inclusion and water security.

Many participants later attend mixed gender sessions as confidence builds. Safety and dignity create pathways to participation, not barriers.

Public safety benefits go beyond individual swimmers. Mothers who cannot swim are less confident in supervising their children around water and less able to respond to emergencies. Swimming skills and confidence are passed on between generations. When women gain confidence in water, children learn earlier, control improves and participation becomes normal. Women’s participation in swimming is not unimportant for drowning prevention. It is central.

Swimming is also a public health problem. It is a low-cost, high-impact intervention that improves cardiovascular health, mobility, and mental health throughout life. For older women, water activities promote independence and reduce the risk of falls. Better health for working-age women increases workforce participation and productivity. Women-only sessions also help reduce social isolation, especially among older and immigrant women.

Critics argue the women-only sessions are exclusionary. This is not the case. Public pools currently offer kids-only classes, programs for seniors, disability-specific sessions and low-stimulus quiet hours. These remove structural barriers to essential services. Equality does not mean the same treatment. This means fair access to security.

State, territory and local governments need to take action together with councils. Women-only swimming sessions at public pools are essential public safety infrastructure. Federal and state governments need to provide funding and policy support, and councils need to implement programs in community pools. Pools are required to offer dedicated sessions at times of day and days of the week that are practical for women and girls, similar to the ACT trial in 2019. These sessions must include privacy measures and be supervised by female lifeguards. Learn-to-swim programs for adults should be designed specifically for women, with teaching methods, tempo and content suitable for adults, rather than being adapted from children’s lessons. Water safety organizations must collect and publish participation and outcome data so these programs can be measured, evaluated, and scaled across the country.

Australia would never accept a road safety system that leaves a high-risk population unprotected. We will not tolerate workplace safety laws that ignore barriers to participation. But that’s exactly what continues to happen in water security.

As drowning deaths increase and summers grow longer and hotter, every delay has consequences. Any woman unable to access swimming due to social, cultural, privacy, body image or safety barriers is a known risk left unaddressed. Every preventable drowning is a policy failure.

Only women swimming saves lives. If Australia is serious about public safety, it cannot wait to act.

Mainul Haque OAM is a retired Australian public servant with nearly three decades of experience in government, academia and community leadership.

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