By JOLENE OGLE
Stop The Violence
THE president of a local women’s empowerment organisation says she wasn’t surprised by a recent survey that found many Australians believing violence against women can be justified.
Patricia Cussens, the president of Zonta Noosa, which is part of a global organisation that works to promote the status of women throughout the world, blamed long-held misogynistic views and a lack of community education for the concerning survey results.
“I guess there aren’t enough people out there doing what Zonta does and trying to raise awareness about violence against women,” she said.
“I guess misogyny still reigns in some communities.”
The survey by Vic Health interviewed 17,500 people and found “sizeable proportions” of people in Australia believe there are circumstances in which violence against women can be excused.
The survey also found an increase in the justification of violence against women. When comparing the survey results from 2009 to 2013, there are more people who believe men rape women because they can’t control their need for sex, up from 35 per cent of respondents in 2009 to 43 per cent in 2013, a man is less responsible for rape or violence if he is drunk or drug affected at the time, up from 20 per cent in 2009 to 23 per cent in 2013, and violence can be excused if the person gets so angry they lose control, up from 8 per cent in 2009 to 9 per cent in 2013.
Ms Cussens said one of the possible reasons for the increase in the justification of violence against women was that communities often ignored the rampant issue of domestic violence.
Zonta Noosa was one of the leading forces behind the SHINE project – a community-based project to build three safe houses for women and children fleeing abusive relationships – but, Ms Cussens said there was a recurring insistence the refuges weren’t needed in Noosa.
“When they built the Shine houses, there was a view we didn’t need refuges in Noosa because that sort of thing didn’t happen here, but it does and it did,” she said.
“There was a view it wasn’t needed. But, I’ll tell you what, the refuges have never been empty.”
Ms Cussens said she hoped talking about domestic violence could help bring the issue out from behind closed doors.
“It has to make a difference. Talking about it has to make some difference to at least educate people it is still going on,” she said.
“They say violence against women is not a women’s issue, it is a societal issue. It’s rooted in misinterpretations of history, culture and religion. And it is all based on social structures and traditional arguements of feminine and masculinity. It’s most frequently about power and control.”
Maroochydore-based Centacare SCOPE operations manager Brigitte McLennan said women were never to blame for violence and the co-operation of the entire social system was to blame for the continued domestic violence epidemic.
Ms McLennan said attitudes and beliefs held by the community – such as those seen in the survey including blaming the victim, denying the violence had occurred, believing certain behaviours weren’t violence and excusing or justifying violence – supported a culture of violence against women.
According to Ms McLennan, violence is a learned behaviour and men’s violence is a result of how many men learn to express what it means to be a man.
“Domestic violence is inexcusable and women and men are still being socialised in gender roles that perpetuate violence against women,” she said.
“These gender roles promote men as needing to be tough, in control, and supportive of pro-violent attitudes towards women.”
Ms McLennan said it was up to the community to change what was considered acceptable behaviour.
