Women & Girls: Violence, Safety & Gender
Violence against women and girls is not inevitableWomen and girls experience violence in homes, relationships, workplaces, institutions, public spaces and online.
The violence may be physical, sexual, psychological, financial or technology facilitated. It may involve coercive control, stalking, harassment, exploitation or threats.
Understanding why women and girls are disproportionately affected by particular forms of violence is an important part of preventing it.
DISCLAIMER
Safety From Violence Is A Right provides information, education and advocacy about domestic, family and sexual violence, abuse, consent, child safety and related issues.
The information on this website is general in nature. It is not intended to provide counselling, legal advice, medical advice, mental health advice, crisis intervention or emergency assistance, and should not be used as a substitute for advice from an appropriately qualified professional or specialist service.
People experience violence and abuse in different ways. Information provided on this website may not reflect every person's circumstances, identity, relationship, risk level or options. Laws, services and reporting requirements may also differ between Australian states and territories.
Where we link to external organisations, research or services, those links are provided for information and convenience. Safety From Violence Is A Right is not responsible for the content, availability, privacy practices or advice provided by external websites.
We aim to use current, credible and appropriately sourced information. However, research, legislation, policies, services and statistics can change over time. Readers should check original sources where current information is important.
If you are concerned about your safety or the safety of another person, consider contacting an appropriate specialist service.
If you or someone else is in immediate danger in Australia, call 000.
For domestic, family and sexual violence counselling and support, contact 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732 or visit the GET HELP section of this website.
INTRODUCTION
Violence can affect anyone. The patterns are not the same.
Men, women, children and people of all genders can experience violence and abuse.
Recognising this should not prevent us from also recognising patterns.
Australian data consistently shows that women are more likely than men to experience violence from an intimate partner, sexual violence and stalking. Women also account for the large majority of hospitalisations involving assault by a partner.
Understanding these differences is not about deciding whose experience matters more.
It is about understanding the nature of violence accurately enough to prevent it, respond appropriately and build systems that recognise the different ways people may be harmed.
THE PATTERNS
What the Australian evidence tells us
1 in 4 women
Around 1 in 4 Australian women have experienced physical and/or sexual violence from an intimate partner since the age of 15.
Source: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
1 in 5 women
Around 1 in 5 Australian women have experienced stalking since the age of 15.
Source: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
Almost 9 in 10
In 2024 to 2025, almost 9 in 10 hospitalisations involving treatment for assault by a partner were for females.
Source: Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
WHY GENDER MATTERS
Why talk specifically about women and girls?
Violence does not happen because someone is a woman or girl.
Nor does gender inequality explain every individual act of violence.
However, decades of Australian and international research show that broader attitudes about gender, power, entitlement and control can create environments in which violence against women becomes more likely, more tolerated or more easily excused.
Our Watch identifies four major gendered drivers associated with violence against women:
Condoning violence against women
Excusing, minimising or justifying violence, or blaming women for violence committed against them.
Control over women's decisions and independence
Beliefs or practices that support men's control over women's choices, independence, finances, relationships or participation in public and private life.
Rigid gender stereotypes
Ideas about how women, girls, men and boys are expected to behave, including beliefs about dominance, submission, sexuality and masculinity.
Cultures that value aggression, dominance and control
Social environments in which aggression, control or sexual entitlement can become associated with status or masculinity.
These factors describe population level patterns. They should not be used to assume that every man is violent or that every experience of violence has the same cause.
FORMS OF VIOLENCE
Violence is not only physical
Intimate partner and family violence
Violence within relationships can include physical assault, sexual violence, threats, intimidation, isolation, emotional abuse, financial abuse, stalking and patterns of coercive control.
A person does not need to be physically assaulted for a relationship to be abusive.
Sexual violence
Sexual violence includes sexual assault, rape, sexual coercion and other sexual activity without free and voluntary consent.
In the ABS 2021 to 2022 Personal Safety Survey, intimate partners were responsible for 53 percent of women's most recent incidents of sexual assault by a male within the previous 10 years.
Coercive control
Coercive control is an ongoing pattern of behaviour used to dominate, intimidate, isolate or restrict another person's freedom.
It may involve finances, movement, friendships, communication, parenting, work, technology, sexuality or everyday decisions.
The pattern matters, not simply whether one individual incident appears serious.
Stalking and surveillance
Stalking can happen in person or through phones, apps, social media, vehicles, accounts, location services and other technology.
It may continue or escalate after a relationship has ended.
Technology facilitated abuse
Technology can be used to monitor, intimidate, threaten, humiliate or control someone.
This may include tracking a person's location, accessing accounts, sending repeated threatening messages, impersonation, cyberstalking or sharing intimate images without consent.
eSafety reports that women are more likely than men to experience sexual and gendered abuse online, and some women and girls face greater risks because of other forms of discrimination or disadvantage.
Financial and economic abuse
Financial abuse can restrict someone's independence and ability to leave an unsafe situation.
It may include controlling bank accounts, withholding money, creating debts, interfering with employment, taking wages or benefits, denying access to household finances or deliberately damaging financial security.
Reproductive coercion
Reproductive coercion occurs when another person attempts to control someone's reproductive choices.
This can include pressure or force relating to pregnancy, contraception, abortion, fertility or sexual activity.
Harassment and sexual harassment
Violence and abuse do not occur only within intimate relationships.
Women and girls may experience harassment, sexual harassment, intimidation and abuse in workplaces, schools, universities, sporting environments, institutions, public spaces and online.
GIRLS AND YOUNG WOMEN
Violence can begin long before adulthood
Girls and young women are developing their understanding of relationships, sexuality, consent, trust and boundaries while navigating increasingly complex online and offline environments.
Some abusive behaviours can initially be mistaken for affection, jealousy or protectiveness.
Warning signs can include:
- Constantly demanding to know where someone is
- Expecting access to passwords or devices
- Monitoring friendships or social media
- Pressuring someone for sexual activity or images
- Threatening to share intimate images
- Extreme jealousy presented as love
- Controlling clothing, friendships or activities
- Humiliating or degrading comments
- Repeated unwanted contact
- Threats of self harm or violence to prevent someone leaving
- Grooming by an older person or person in a position of trust
- Manipulating someone into believing abuse is normal
Healthy relationships do not require someone to surrender their privacy, independence, boundaries or right to say no.
ONLINE VIOLENCE
Violence can follow someone into their phone
Technology has changed how abuse can be perpetrated.
A person may be monitored at home, at work, while travelling or after leaving a relationship.
Technology facilitated abuse can include:
► Location tracking
► Spyware or unauthorised account access
► Repeated unwanted messages
► Threats made through social media
► Online impersonation
► Image based abuse
► Sexualised deepfakes
► Cyberstalking
► Monitoring children's devices to locate a former partner
► Controlling access to phones or online accounts
► Public humiliation or harassment campaigns
Technology itself is not the cause of abuse. It can become another tool through which control, intimidation and violence are exercised.
LEAVING IS NOT SIMPLE
"Why doesn't she just leave?" is the wrong question
Leaving an abusive relationship can be complicated and sometimes dangerous.
A woman may be considering:
- Her children's safety
- Threats made against her or others
- Housing and homelessness
- Financial dependence
- Disability or health needs
- Pets
- Immigration status
- Employment
- Isolation from friends or family
- Access to transport
- Fear of not being believed
- Religious, cultural or community pressures
- Legal proceedings
- Parenting arrangements
- Stalking or surveillance
- What may happen after separation
A person may leave and return several times. She may also remain in a relationship while developing a safety plan or waiting until circumstances make leaving possible.
The responsibility for the violence remains with the person choosing to use it.
Instead of asking, "Why didn't she leave?" we should also be asking, "Why was another person able to keep using violence?"
AFTER SEPARATION
Separation does not always end the abuse
For some women, separation ends a relationship but not the violence or control.
Abuse may continue through:
- Stalking
- Threats
- Financial abuse
- Technology
- Property damage
- Harassment
- Children and parenting arrangements
- Repeated legal proceedings
- False reports or complaints
- Contact with workplaces, family or friends
- Attempts to damage someone's reputation
This is why safety should not be measured simply by whether a relationship has ended.
DIFFERENT WOMEN, DIFFERENT BARRIERS
DIFFERENT WOMEN, DIFFERENT BARRIERS
There is no single experience of being a woman
Women are not one homogenous group.
Risk, access to support and experiences with institutions may also be shaped by disability, age, culture, sexuality, location, socioeconomic circumstances, racism and other forms of discrimination.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women
Violence experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women must be understood within the continuing impacts of colonisation, racism, dispossession, intergenerational trauma and systemic inequality.
Responses should be culturally safe and led by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities.
Women with disability
Women with disability may experience particular forms of abuse involving carers, support workers, medication, mobility aids, communication devices, finances, personal care or access to services.
Dependence on another person for everyday support can also create additional barriers to disclosure or leaving.
Migrant and refugee women
Visa status, language barriers, isolation, financial dependence, unfamiliarity with Australian systems or fear of authorities may be used as tools of control.
Older women
Violence and abuse can continue into older age or begin later in life.
Older women may experience intimate partner violence, family violence, financial abuse, neglect or elder abuse.
Rural, regional and remote women
Distance, limited services, transport, privacy concerns and small community networks can create additional barriers to seeking help.
LGBTQIA+ women
Lesbian, bisexual, transgender and other LGBTQIA+ women can experience domestic, family and sexual violence as well as abuse that targets sexuality, gender identity or community connections.
VICTIM BLAMING
The questions we ask matter
Victim blaming shifts attention from the person using violence to the person experiencing it.
It appears in questions such as:
"Why did she stay?"
"Why did she go back?"
"Why was she there?"
"Why didn't she report it?"
"Why did she trust him?"
"Why was she drinking?"
"Why didn't she fight back?"
"Why didn't she realise what was happening?"
These questions can make survivors responsible for anticipating or preventing another person's behaviour.
Better questions include:
Who chose to use violence?
What enabled the behaviour to continue?
What barriers prevented safety?
How could our systems have responded better?
PERPETRATOR RESPONSIBILITY
The person using violence is responsible for the violence
Alcohol does not cause someone to abuse another person.
Stress does not excuse violence.
Relationship conflict does not justify coercive control.
A survivor's behaviour does not make another person responsible for assaulting, threatening, stalking or controlling them.
Understanding contributing factors can be important for prevention and intervention, but explanation must never become excuse.
Accountability means keeping responsibility where it belongs.
PREVENTION
Prevention means acting before violence occurs
Responding well after violence happens is essential.
It is not enough.
Primary prevention aims to change the social conditions that make violence more likely before violence occurs. Our Watch identifies prevention as work that addresses underlying gendered drivers at a population level.
Prevention includes:
Challenge victim blaming
Do not excuse violence or transfer responsibility from perpetrators to victim survivors.
Teach consent early
Children and young people need age-appropriate conversations about boundaries, bodily autonomy, respect and consent.
Challenge entitlement and control
Jealousy, possessiveness and control should not be romanticised as signs of love.
Build respectful relationships
Equality, autonomy, communication and respect should be expected within relationships.
Intervene earlier
Warning signs should be recognised before abusive behaviour escalates.
Hold people and institutions accountable
Individuals, organisations, systems and governments all have responsibilities in preventing violence and responding when it occurs.
AVOID MAKING WOMEN RESPONSIBLE FOR PREVENTION
Safety advice has limits
Advice about safety can be useful.
But prevention cannot become another list of things women and girls are told to do:
Walk somewhere else.
Dress differently.
Do not drink.
Do not go alone.
Do not trust strangers.
Share your location.
Carry an alarm.
Watch your drink.
Do not meet someone online.
Leave the relationship.
Report sooner.
Be more careful.
Women and girls can make informed choices about their personal safety.
But no safety strategy can guarantee protection from another person's decision to use violence.
The ultimate goal of prevention is not to teach women and girls how to avoid violence. It is to reduce the number of people choosing to perpetrate it.
WHAT MEN AND BOYS HAVE TO DO WITH THIS
Prevention is not women's work
Preventing violence against women and girls cannot be left to women and girls.
Men and boys can play an important role in:
- Modelling respectful relationships
- Challenging sexist or degrading comments
- Rejecting violence and sexual entitlement
- Talking openly about consent
- Respecting boundaries
- Challenging controlling behaviour among peers
- Supporting friends to seek help when their behaviour is concerning
- Teaching boys that strength does not require dominance
- Holding other men accountable without treating all men as perpetrators
Our Watch emphasises that while not all men use violence against women, men can be an important part of prevention.
RELATED LEARNING
Continue learning
Click on the title to access the information
Coercive Control
Understand patterns of domination, isolation and control.
Sexual Violence
Learn about sexual violence, its impacts and common misconceptions.
Consent
Understand free, voluntary and ongoing consent.
Children & Young People
Learn how violence affects children and young people's safety and development.
Perpetrator Responsibility
Keep responsibility for violence with the person choosing to use it.
Systems & Justice
Explore how institutions and systems can help, fail or retraumatise people affected by violence.
SOURCES AND FURTHER READING
Evidence and further reading
This page draws on Australian research and national organisations working across domestic, family and sexual violence, prevention and online safety.
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
Family, domestic and sexual violence data and research
Australian Bureau of Statistics
Personal Safety Survey and national violence data
1800RESPECT
National domestic, family and sexual violence counselling, information and support service
Our Watch
Primary prevention of violence against women and the Change the Story framework
eSafety Commissioner
Technology facilitated abuse, online safety and gender-based abuse
GET HELP
If something on this page feels familiar
You do not need to decide whether what you are experiencing is "serious enough" before seeking information or support.
Specialist services can help you understand what is happening, consider your options and make decisions that are right for your circumstances.
Immediate danger
If you or someone else is in immediate danger in Australia, call 000.