Attitudes on violence against women show little improvement in 2014

Volume 10 Number 10 October 13 - November 9 2014

 

Research has shown persistent and disturbing attitudes toward violence against women. By Liz Banks-Anderson 

New survey findings have shown Australia has a long way to go towards improving community attitudes towards violence against women. 

Undertaken by VicHealth in collaboration with University of Melbourne Senior Research Fellow Dr Kristin Diemer and the Social Research Centre, the survey revealed the need for rapid change in community attitudes towards violence and gender stereotypes.

The National Community Attitudes Survey towards Violence against Women (NCAS), commissioned by the Department of Social Services, was released in September. It found the majority of measures of community understanding and attitudes on violence against women had not improved in Australia in almost 20 years. 

The survey has been undertaken periodically since 1995 to track whether views on violence and gender roles are shifting, with more than 17,500 Australians questioned about their views on violence against women and gender equality.

One in five Australians agree that a woman is partly responsible for rape if she is intoxicated. And one in six support the notion that women say ‘no’ when they mean ‘yes’.

An alarming number of Australians are ready to excuse rapists and men who control, intimidate, bash and kill women, and many apportion blame to the victim.

Dr Diemer, one of the lead researchers and authors of the survey says the results demonstrate the clear link between attitudes on gender equality, understanding of what constitutes violence against women, and attitudes towards that violence.

“The survery responses show that as a community we don’t have a clear understanding of the more subtle forms of violence and where the line is drawn in terms of what is appropriate and what is not appropriate,” Dr Diemer says.

“When negative comments are made about women based on gender or violent and exploitative imagery is used to promote something and make it look ‘sexy’ we become complicit in excusing and minimising violence against women.” 

A high number of Australians still believe violence and rape can be excused. A proportion of Australians hold conservative views on gender roles, with one in four believing men make better political leaders and one in five believing men should be the head of the household. 

“There are a lot of mixed messages in the community: on the one hand we want to believe gender equality is strong in Australia, but on the other we minimise and excuse violence against women in a way we would not if it occurred to men,” she says.

It’s not all bad news though. The survey also revealed positive results that the majority of people understood that domestic violence was a crime and women were far more likely to be victims. Of people surveyed, 98 per cent said they would intervene if a woman they knew was the target of violence.

“The fact the survey finds negative change in some areas, clear misconceptions around the facts of violence, and only modest progress in other areas, shows it’s important to maintain our efforts to prevent and reduce men’s violence against women, including strengthening community attitudes,” Dr Diemer says. 

“When we have low community understanding about the subtle forms of violence against women it is highly likely these attitudes also transcend into personal relationships, compounding negative relationship dynamics.

“The main challenges to overcome to improve attitudes towards violence are firstly, to raise awareness of forms of minimising and excusing violence so that we remove victim blaming.”

Secondly, Dr Diemer says this needs to be done by promoting greater representation of women in all segments of society, including high profile positions and setting some guidelines about public engagement and comment. 

 

www.mccaugheycentre.unimelb.edu.au