2022-11-24
The 16 days of activism against gender based violence is an annual international campaign that starts on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. Violence against women does not happen in a vacuum; it is most often perpetrated by men, and it is time to seriously reckon with that fact and how we change it. A whole-of-society approach that tackles the root cause of the problem that is patriarchy and the power imbalance it creates is really the way forward. This means recognising the systemic ways that women's inequality is linked to violence and how violence and abuse is sustained through this inequality. Women continue to be underemployed and underpaid and they represent the vast majority of workers in precarious and undervalued work, such as in the care economy. Violence against women is preventable, and greater gender equity is at the heart of the solution.
We know that First Nations women as well as women of colour are far more likely to face domestic and family violence. The fact is that Aboriginal women and women of colour also face many extra barriers trying to access services. Systemic racism is part and parcel of our institutions, such as health, law enforcement and justice. There is a complete and utter lack of investment in Aboriginal community controlled organisations that specialise in providing culturally safe family violence services. Similarly, there are very few services funded especially for women of colour or trans women or women with disability. This is an unacceptable situation. We know that family violence increased during COVID, but let's be frank here, let's look at the truth: violence against women was at epidemic levels in this country even before the pandemic began, and the lack of support services and women's refuges has meant that women have always been trapped in homes with their abusers because they simply have nowhere to go.
Every year we count the numbers and every year they are distressingly high. Politicians in this place on days like today say how shocked they are and how terrible it is, yet governments are still unwilling to take the necessary steps and to invest at the large scale needed to tackle violence and abuse. Counting Dead Women Australia—who have taken on the heartbreaking and difficult work of doing just that: counting how many women we lose to violence every year—say that, as of this week, we have lost 40 women in Australia this year.
A case that really broke my heart is that of Arnima Hayat, a 19-year-old medical student who was found dead in a bathtub full of acid in her North Parramatta home in early February. Her new husband was later charged with murder after handing himself in. Her young life was cut short. Her family said she'd aspired to be a surgeon. Arnima was just a teenager.
This story, and others like it, can't be 'just another story', and then we move on. We know what needs to be done and we must do it now. We know that at the heart of violence against women is control, misogyny and sexism and a culture that continues to endorse these. This kind of violence happens repeatedly because there are apologists for toxic masculinity in society. It's plainly and painfully obvious that we need to do much more. Governments need to do more; society needs to do more. Victims-survivors who do reach out rely on a system that is desperately underfunded and overstretched. There is a dangerous shortage of services for survivors of domestic violence all over the country. When women, some with children in tow, have taken the brave step to walk away from violence, there is nowhere to go—no safe place to go to.
Our goal should be to prevent and end domestic violence. To do that, we can't have bandaid solutions. It can't be one size fits all or something based on administrative rationalism. It has to be holistic—an all-encompassing approach that actually changes culture and systems, at the same time as it provides the best possible care and services for victims and survivors.