Female empowerment the focus at Vision Splendid

“Choose to challenge” was the theme of International Women’s Day this year. Debbie Baxter, along with the entire Narrabri Vision Splendid team, is doing exactly that.

She says she’s proud to have witnessed a significant increase in the number of female optometrists in the last 30 years, a field that once primarily consisted of men.

“In 1991, when I began working in the industry, women made up only 30 per cent of the optometry workforce.

“Whereas now, just over half of Australian optometrists are women,” Debbie said.

Vision Splendid is a great example of this trend of female empowerment in the workplace, with woman making up the majority of the Narrabri team.

Locals Ros Thorn, Erin Lennox, and Molly Dawson are trained optical dispensers, with Donna Bower and Kelsey Cooper currently working towards the same qualification. The friendly office staff, Ashlee Worley and Donna Richardson, are also all women from the Narrabri area.

“This leaves Sebastian Egan as the only male in our team, with Tim Duffy regularly coming across from our Gunnedah practice for extra male support!” Debbie explained.

Lauren Finlay and Alison Stuart also travel from the Gunnedah branch to help out the local team where needed. While Lauren lived and studied in Sydney before moving out west for work, Alison and Debbie are from the area originally.

After growing up in Gunnedah, Alison moved to Sydney to study optometry at the University of New South Wales. She then worked in a number of different practices across the state before returning to her hometown.

Debbie says she moved to Brisbane to study optometry before coming back to Narrabri, where she was “born and bred”.

She also recently completed an advanced course in children’s vision.

Debbie says it’s this passion for the industry that has seen so many of the team advance their optometry understandings through education and additional study.

But this isn’t the only thing that makes Vision Splendid so special.

“The difference between our team and one you’d find in the city, is that the people who work here are all a part of the local community,” she said.

“We take great pride in both our work, and our local area. So it‘s not just about eyeballs and glasses for us, it’s about caring for each person as part of our commitment to the town we call home.”