Dr Rowena Mobbs is a woman making big waves in some very blokey circles.

The neurologist has attracted the support of the likes of former Wallaby Peter Fitzsimmons, boxer Jeff Fenech and Rugby League great Steve “Blocker” Roach in her mission to bring to light the dangers of concussion and repetitive head trauma in sport.

To mark both International Women’s Day 8 March and Brain Awareness Week 15-21 March, we asked Rowena to explain why her mission matters.

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I count myself among the lucky people who have found their true passion in life.

With a father as a neurosurgeon, I was always hearing about head injuries. My mother was a racehorse trainer with genuine concern for jockeys and their head injury risk. And as an elite athlete I saw all sides (and I never forgot to wear a helmet!).

Over the last four years this has coalesced to make head trauma the major focus of my neurology career.

Prior to the Sydney Olympics, my father, Dr Ray Newcombe, chaired the NHMRC panel into boxing and football injuries. Although there was emerging evidence for the cumulative neurological consequences of these sports, he faced intense pressure to minimise this concern and “allow the show to go on”.

Instead, he called for a national registry on head and neck trauma, which has not yet been fully achieved. We therefore have a generational obligation to understand the risk of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy or CTE in our athletes and try to better manage or prevent it.

The world of sport is facing much change overall, beyond concussion. Despite the emergence of elite women’s sport, it’s still rare  to see a picture of a female athlete on the back page of the newspaper.  The evolution of female elite cricket, football and other sports is a brilliant achievement, but the finish line is far in the distance.

When I was interviewed to get into neurology, my mother warned me not to wear my engagement ring, for fear that this would inhibit my success. She herself had wanted to be a doctor but her father said no – she was going to have a family, so there was no point.

These unfair experiences drive me everyday in my career to be the best female role model I can be, and to ensure true equality for our future doctors. Macquarie University and MQ Health have provided a progressive platform for me to build my career, and to provide best models of care for our patients.

In the clinic, I see women who have suffered lifelong domestic violence and self-harm related head trauma, and I fear that we are not seeing beyond the tip of the iceberg as far as this burden of head injury, and risk of secondary issues like dementia in these groups. In addition, many of our patients with suspected CTE have anger and aggression, associated with a risk of assault on their families, or a risk of reactionary violence and assault against them, continuing the cycle.

What does this mean for Australia now? We must urgently address the scientific questions around CTE rate, clinical manifestation, care, and prevention.

We need to directly focus on having equal numbers of female participants in our research, and to ensure a large component is focused on gender and family based violence, as well as female athletes.

And we need both men and women – in sporting bodies, government and the community – to come together. Only then can we begin to gain a complete picture of CTE in Australia, and perhaps inspire our future neuroscientists to discover cures.

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Learn more about Rowena’s work in the Concussion and Repetitive Head Trauma Research Group.