Edit: Since publication of this statement, some media outlets have incorrectly reported that Our Watch was accused of asking an academic to remove data from a research report. This is not correct. These allegations were made against another organisation, not Our Watch, and relate to a time ten years ago before the national framework, Change the story, was developed. Any implication that Our Watch failed to consider evidence or data relating to alcohol and socioeconomic factors in the development of Change the story is not accurate. This evidence and research was carefully considered during the development of Change the story and again when the framework was reviewed in 2021, and these issues are included in the framework.
Violence against women has been a big topic in the public conversation this year, and recently, part of this conversation has been about Australia’s current approach to the primary prevention of violence against women. After decades of men's violence being a problem kept behind closed doors, it is positive to see this issue in the public conversation. And with 43 women allegedly killed by men’s violence this year alone, we should be asking why.
The national framework that guides the primary prevention of violence against women, Change the story, was developed over two years of consultation with community, victim survivors and all governments, alongside a group of primary prevention experts with deep understanding of the decades of national and international evidence in this field. They worked collaboratively, and critically, to review and summarise this evidence for the purpose of developing a national framework to guide national prevention efforts in a strategic and focused way.
Change the story focuses primarily on the gendered drivers that the international evidence shows to be the most consistent predictors of violence against women – sexism, harmful gender stereotypes and disrespect.
But crucially, the framework includes a range of other factors that the evidence shows are relevant, but less strongly predictive of violence across the population. Things like harmful alcohol use, childhood experience of violence, and the impact of poverty. These factors absolutely need to be addressed and are a critical part of the solution to preventing violence against women.
At Our Watch we actively support efforts to reduce these harms, and in turn to reduce the frequency and severity of the violence experienced by women. The impact of harmful alcohol use features prominently throughout Change the story and the regulation of alcohol is among the framework’s key recommendations.
Like all evidence, we expect it to continue to evolve and change as the work progresses, but the fundamentals remain true. Gendered violence has gendered drivers, and prevention needs to focus on both shifting these dynamics and addressing the contributing factors.
Unfortunately, there is no quick fix to end violence against women. We all want change to happen faster, but social change of this complexity, and at this scale, takes time. It also takes action and collaboration at every level of our society, from individuals and local communities through to businesses and governments.
That’s because violence against women is not only an individual problem, it is a social problem.
We all make choices in a social context, including men who chose to use violence. It’s the social context of this violence that primary prevention works to change. The gender inequality present in our workplaces and institutions that gives women less opportunities than men. The disrespect in our public and private spaces that makes women feel unsafe. The fewer female voices we hear in leadership roles and in the public domain. The harmful gender stereotypes that tell women that they are lesser, and box men into rigid ideas about what it means to be a man.
These are the things primary prevention works to change.
There are many dedicated and fearless people working to end violence against women across all four of the key domains articulated in the National Plan to End Violence Against Women and Children – primary prevention, early intervention, response and recovery.
This includes those providing direct support to women through frontline services, those working to change behaviour through early intervention programs with men, and those creating change at a social level by changing the attitudes, structures and power imbalances that allow violence to occur.
All of these activities are vital, and each one supports the effectiveness of the others. This is not an either/or equation, and treating it as one will see us fail to end this crisis.
While it’s not always easy to measure, primary prevention is having an impact. Over the past 10 years, rates of physical violence against women by an intimate partner have gone down. Long-term intimate partner homicide rates have declined. We are seeing a decline in problematic beliefs with more than 90% of Australians now mostly rejecting attitudes that support gendered violence.
It's difficult to reconcile making progress in these areas in a year when so many women have been killed and so many families are living in fear. But it’s also important that we maintain hope. Hope that this violence can be prevented. Hope that a better future is possible for all of us.
We cannot accept that men’s violence is inevitable, and we must dedicate resources and effort to both responding to it and preventing it. We are at the point in complex social change where staying the course is not only preferable, it is critical. Women’s lives are depending on it.
Please contact media@ourwatch.org.au or call 0448 844 930.
If you cover this story, or any story regarding violence against women and children, please include the following tagline:
1800RESPECT is the national domestic, family, and sexual violence counselling, information and support service. If you or someone you know is experiencing, or at risk of experiencing, domestic, family or sexual violence, call 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732, chat online via www.1800RESPECT.org.au, or text 0458 737 732. Men’s Referral Service: 1300 766 491
Access guides for reporting about violence against women and their children.
Our Watch is a national leader in Australia’s work to stop violence against women and their children before it starts. The organisation was created to drive nation-wide change in the practices, norms, and structures that lead to violence against women and children. Read more about Our Watch here.