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So far AWAVA Secretariat has created 504 blog entries.

Investing to end violence against women

[Excerpt from AWAVA’s Budget Analysis 2018-19]

 

In terms of balancing revenue and spending measures, we believe that with an appropriate level of commitment there is scope to substantially increase funding under the National Plan. The Australian Government could recalibrate its funding to anti-terror and national security measures, in line with the huge disparity between the scale of fatalities due to terrorism and those due to family violence (as well as the impacts in terms of injury, disability, health and well-being). As the Monash University’s Gender and Family Violence team has pointed out, the Global Terrorism Index and the AIC homicide monitoring show that, from the period 2005–2015, 520 women were killed by an intimate (ex)partner while six people were killed in terrorist attacks (and this figure includes the assailants). By contrast, the Monash team found that the 2017 Budget allocated $321 million to the Australian Federal Police alone for national security measures, compared with $50 million for domestic and family violence services.

 

Price Waterhouse Coopers has estimated that violence against women in Australia imposes a financial cost of $21.7 billion a year, with victims/survivors bearing the main burden of this cost. Governments (national and State and Territory) bear the next largest portion, estimated at $7.8 billion a year, which comprises health, administration and social welfare costs. In this context, the costs of a substantially greater investment in comprehensive prevention and response initiatives, with measures directed to the specific needs of women in their diversity, would be offset by reductions in costs elsewhere, most importantly in the cost to victims/survivors themselves.

 

In summary there are both spending and revenue measures that could be used to fund the direction of greater resources to preventing and responding to violence against women. Furthermore, there are compelling reasons for doing so. In addition to the responsibility of national governments to establish safety for all residents, there is the need to prioritise funding according to the real impact and threat of harm. Finally, it is possible to prevent the very high burden of cost which falls predominantly on the individual lives of women and children who are subjected to violence, but also impacts on government budgets.

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Addressing Financial Abuse Booklet

The Commonwealth Bank and Domestic Violence NSW have launched Addressing Financial Abuse, a booklet for domestic and family violence support workers to help affected people establish financial independence as a key step in leaving abusive relationships.

 

The booklet provides guidance on the simple steps that can be taken to promote financial independence , such as opening up a new personal bank account; financial safety planning; freezing joint accounts and changing account passwords. (Source)

 

Access the resource relevant to your state or territory here: ACT | NSW | NT | QLD | SA | TAS | VIC | WA

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AWAVA’s 2018-19 Federal Budget Analysis

We have completed our analysis of how the 2018-19 Federal Budget addresses violence against women. While there is some good news in the Budget, other areas need significant improvement. Download our full analysis: 

 

Have a look at our video summary here:

 

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Survey: Consulting on the Fourth Action Plan

The National Plan to Reduce Violence Against Women and Their Children 2010-2022 (National Plan) is a major policy framework that has the potential to help achieve gender equality and end violence against women. The National Plan acts as the primary Australian policy on reducing sexual assault and domestic and family violence. The National Plan has underpinned the development of crucial services such as 1800RESPECT and important prevention initiatives, including those led by Our Watch. It consists of four Action Plans (each covering three years) that are intended to build a set of defined and practical steps to respond to and prevent violence against women and their children.


Support for the National Plan has been an important part of AWAVA’s work since the inception of the Plan. We have provided advice on the development of the three Action Plans so far, and have provided feedback on their implementation.
 

With just four years of the National Plan remaining, there is an urgent need for revitalised commitment to the Plan to ensure that it builds a solid platform for a sustained reduction in violence against women. In addition, since 2010 there has been increasing awareness of the importance of a broader understanding of different forms of violence and the needs of different groups of women.
 

AWAVA is undertaking a project to contribute to evaluations of Third Action Plan (3AP) and consult on the development of the Fourth Action Plan (4AP). As a part of this project, the survey aims to identify gaps, issues and positive steps that can inform the creation of the Fourth Action Plan.

 

This survey will take you approximately 20-30 minutes to complete. The survey is anonymous and does not require you to disclose your name or your organisation unless you choose to. We will be using the survey findings in our advocacy and written submissions to relevant government agencies including the Department of Social Services and the Office for Women in the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet. The survey closes on the 17th of June.
 

We’d like to thank you for filling out this survey by drawing 15 mystery prizes from a local Canberra artist. We will draw 15 respondents randomly from those who completed all questions in the survey. You will be able to select whether you want to be added to a draw at the end of the survey. Winners will be announced on Wednesday the 20th of June.
 

If you wish to share with us any further information, you can do so by emailing our Policy Officer, Tina at [email protected].

 

Click here to start the survey. 

Survey link: https://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/4329796/Consulting-on-the-Fourth-Action-Plan-of-the-National-Plan-to-Reduce-Violence-Against-Women-and-Their-Children

 

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Women’s Refuges as Part of Feminism: A View from a Different Angle

AWAVA was one of the sponsor partners for the March 2018 issues of the Parity Magazine titled The Future of Women’s Refugees.

 

Dr Merrindahl Andrew, AWAVA’s Program Manager is writing on women’s refuges as part of feminism:

While refuges are clearly part of the homelessness services sector,

[…] what is sometimes less clear in policy discussion and development is the simultaneous position that refuges occupy within an evolving set of feminist (or feminist-informed) institutions and, more broadly, an evolving women’s movement.

Continue reading here.

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Gender lens to cyberbullying

 

On Friday 16 March 2018, Australian schools will stand united in their communities to celebrate the eighth National Day of Action against Bullying and Violence. The National Day is a positive day of action, bringing school communities together to help find workable solutions that address bullying and violence. While there has been a lot of attention paid to cyberbullying, approaches to preventing, responding and addressing this issue need to be more attentive to gender.

 

Over the recent years, there have been several studies conducted looking into the gendered nature of cyberbullying. Often they were focused simply on the gender of perpetrators and victims rather than investigating the more complex question of “how acquired gender-related beliefs can be linked to cyberbullying”

[i]. While the analysis of the available research finds that all genders can be both perpetrators and victims, there were a number of conclusions made that allow us to understand better the gendered nature of cyberbullying.

 

First, despite varying research outcomes, most of the work in this area has shown the majority of victims are women.[ii] Second, while more males are exposed to cyberbullying entailing physical aggression, more females are victims of cyberbullying that includes non-consensual sharing of intimate images, unsolicited sending of sexual and pornographic images and other forms of cyberbullying entailing sexualised behaviour[iii].

Third, the impacts of this behaviour are gendered as it is rooted in outdated stereotypes about gender roles, sexuality and sexual norms for women. For example, the non-consensual sharing of intimate images, and the threat to share such images, occurs in the context of the sexual double standard, which unfairly judges women but not men for enjoying their sexuality, and is often a dimension of controlling/coercive behaviour in ongoing relationships as well as relationships that are breaking down or have ended.[iv] There are also forms of online abuse such as shaming girls for their appearance, which relate to the underlying gender dynamics that drive violence against women.

Finally, the underlying cause of violence inflicted through technology lies in the “social and structural context of gender hierarchization”[v], in other words, power relations between men and women as well as other intersecting social groupings, the dominant position of men over women, and the desire for control and coercion.
In short, violence and bullying generally are strongly interlinked with dynamics of gender and sexuality. The normalisation of male violence and restrictive expectations about women and girls are some of the key drivers of violence and bullying generally.

 

Alongside the gendered dynamics of cyberbullying, we need to be taking an intersectional approach to address the issue recognising diverse experiences. Reports over the last 10 years indicate that from 60 to 80 percent of people who identify as LGBTIQ have experienced homophobic abuse including cyberbullying.[vi] Transgender women and men experience significantly higher rates of non-physical and physical abuse compared with women and men who identify as homosexual.[vii]
Henry and Powell also found that people with disabilities and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are among populations vulnerable to the increased rates of technology-facilitated abuse more broadly. The dynamics of cyberbullying for diverse groups will be underpinned not only by gender, but also race, sexuality, and disability.

It is important that we work to address cyberbullying, and to effectively do this we need to address the overlap between cyberbullying and violence against women.

One of the ways that responses to cyberbullying can be strengthened to prevent violence against women more broadly is to integrate an understanding of the sexual and gender aspects that exist in the online interactions of children and young people. We need to move away from approaches to educating young people about online conduct that perpetuate gender inequalities and norms which blame young women for their victimisation.

A better approach would be to make sure that content about young people’s use of digital technology is included in sexuality and relationships education, and that this education addresses attitudes and norms which create hurtful and abuse behaviours (eg non-consensual sharing of images) avoids educational approaches which demonise all online sexual behaviours, victim-blame or put the onus on young women to prevent their own abuse.[viii] There is also a need to address the experiences of diverse groups in relation to these issues unpacking the intersectionality of their identities and experiences. These efforts need to be made alongside achieving gender equality, combating homophobia, transphobia, and racism, and promoting respectful relationships.

 

References cited:

[i] R.Navarro et al. (eds). Cyberbullying across the Globe, Chapter 2 Gender Issues and Cyberbullying in Children and Adolescents: From Gender Differences to Gender Identity Matters.

[ii] Henry N., Powell A. (2016) Sexual Violence in the Digital Age: The Scope and Limits of Criminal Law Social & Legal Studies, Vol. 25(4) 397–418

[iii] Cassidy, W., Brown, K., & Jackson, M. (2012). ‘Under the radar’: Educators and cyberbullying in schools. School Psychology International, 33(5), 520–532. doi:10.1177/0143034312445245

[iv] Ringrose, J., Gill, R., Livingstone, S. & Harvey, L. ‘A qualitative study of children, young people and ‘sexting’: a report prepared for the NSPCC’. National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, London, UK 2012.

[v][v] Ibid.

[vi] Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, La Trobe University, Writing Themselves in 3: The third national study on the sexual health and wellbeing of same sex attracted and gender questioning young people(2010); ACON, Submission to the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Family, Community, Housing and Youth inquiry into the impact of violence on young Australians (2009), p.4; Also see Tomsen & Mason 2001; Australian Human Rights Commission Violence, Harassment and Bullying and the LGBTI Communities https://bullying.humanrights.gov.au/sites/default/files/content/pdf/bullying/VHB_LGBTI.pdf

[vii] Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, La Trobe University, Writing Themselves in 3: The third national study on the sexual health and wellbeing of same sex attracted and gender questioning young people(2010);

[viii] Young Women’s Advisory Group (2017), Submission to the inquiry into improving the delivery of respectful relationships and sex education relevant to the use of technology in Queensland state schools, https://www.equalityrightsalliance.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/YWAG-Submission-QLD-respectful-relationships-20170814.pdf

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Submission on review of the early release of superannuation benefits

AWAVA has made a submission to the Treasury on the early release of superannuation benefits.

 

This submission has been endorsed by Equality Rights Alliance and economicSecurity4Women.

 

Download our submission here  

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Submission in response to the public consultation on the Family Law Amendment (Parent Management Hearings) Bill 2017

AWAVA has made a submission in response to the public consultation on the Family Law Amendment (Parent Management Hearings) Bill 2017.

 

Download our submission here  

 

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Submission to the Justice Project

AWAVA has made a submission to the public consultation within the Justice Project run by the Law Council of Australia. For more information on the project click here.

 

Download our submission here  

 

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