'DOMEST IC V IOLENCE & INTERPRET ING FORUM’  24 SEPTEMBER 2015

  

“UNDERSTANDING DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN:

THE AUSTRALIAN STORY”

Associate Professor JaneMaree MaherCentre for Women’s Studies & Gender Research, Monash University

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PRESENTATION OUTLINE

•Australian story: incidences and responses •Terms: the importance of language•Gender norms and discourses: towards equality •The contemporary challenge

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THE MOST PREVALENT CRIME?

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RESPONSES AND LEADERSHIP

• Christine Nixon and Ken Lay, VicPol Chief Commissioners

• National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children 2010–2022• Our Watch headed by

Natasha Stott-Despoja, Australian Ambassador for Women and Girls• Australian

National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety

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VIOLENCE AND TERMINOLOGY Domestic Violence

Family Violence

Intimate Partner Violence

Family Violence Protection Act (2008), family violence defined as:Violent, threatening, coercive or controlling behaviour in current or past familial, domestic or intimate relationships. This encompasses not only physical injury but direct or indirect threats, sexual assault, emotional and psychological torment, economic control, property damage, social isolation and behaviour which causes a person to live in fear. Family violence is committed primarily, though not exclusively, by men against women. This definition encompasses violence against children and between siblings and is not limited to criminal behaviours as identified in the Victorian Crimes (Family Violence) Act 1987.

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GENDER EQUALITY & EQUITY

• Gender equality requires equal enjoyment by women and men of socially-valued goods, opportunities, resources and rewards. http://web.unfpa.org/gender/resources3.htm#2)

• "Gender equity is the process of being fair to women and men." (UNFPA)

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FOR EVERYONE