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Before considering how best to prevent violence against women it is necessary
to develop a shared understanding of the problem, based on the latest evidence.
Element 1 defines and describes violence against women and presents an explanatory
model for this violence, with an emphasis on exploring the problem at a social level
and explaining its gendered dynamics and drivers.
What is violence against women and their children?
The framework’s definition of violence against women,
shared with the National Plan to Reduce Violence against
Women and their Children 2010–2022 and the United
Nations Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against
Women (1993), is:
any act of gender based violence that causes
or could cause physical, sexual or psychological
harm or suffering to women, including threats of
harm or coercion, in public or in private life. 27
This definition encompasses all forms of violence that
women experience, including physical, sexual, emotional,
cultural/spiritual violence and financial abuse, that are
gender based. Gender based violence is violence specifically
‘directed against a woman because she is a woman or
that affects women disproportionately’. 28 It can occur in
homes, in social and recreational contexts, on the street,
in workplaces, schools or online, and at the hands of
perpetrators either known or unknown to the victim.
The framework aims to guide prevention of violence
against all women, understanding that women’s and men’s
identities, social positions and experiences are shaped not
just by gender, but by a range of other social categories of
difference, including Aboriginality, culture, race, ethnicity,
faith or spirituality, socio-economic status, ability, sexuality,
gender identity, education, age and immigration status.
The framework’s definition includes anyone who identifies
and lives as a woman. ii
Many women who experience violence have children in
their care. 29 Exposure to violence against their mothers or
other caregivers causes profound harm to children, with
potential impacts on attitudes to relationships and violence,
as well as behavioural, cognitive and emotional functioning,
social development, and – through a process of
‘negative chain effects’ – education and later employment
prospects. 30 Because violence against women has such
direct and significant impacts on children, preventing it will
also prevent associated harm to and consequences for
children, which is why the framework title refers to violence
against women and their children. 31
The framework’s emphasis is on the prevention of intimate
partner violence and non-partner sexual assault of women,
the two most common forms of violence against women in
Australia. 32 These types of violence are also the focus of the
bulk of the international literature, knowledge and practice
on which the framework draws. There is less research and
practice on other forms of violence against women, iii but all
forms of violence against women are interrelated and exist on
a continuum, and the research shows they share many of the
same drivers. iv For this reason, the framework is also likely to
contribute to the prevention of these other forms of violence.
ii
The framework also acknowledges that violence is experienced by people whose experience and/or identity does not conform to binary definitions of sex and gender.
While it does not include strategies specifically aimed at preventing violence against transgender, gender diverse and intersex people, to the extent that such violence
shares some similar drivers to violence against women (particularly rigid, binary and hierarchical constructions of gender, sex and sexuality) its prevention is likely to be
aided by the strategies outlined here.
iii
Such as street harassment, violence perpetrated against women by their (male and female) adult children, forced sterilisation, violence in lesbian relationships, sex
trafficking and other slavery-like practices, female genital mutilation/cutting, so-called ‘honour’ crimes and forced or early marriage. There are also limitations to the
literature on forms of violence which also may affect men in large numbers, such as elder abuse, or violence perpetrated by (male or female) staff against women in
institutional, residential and other formal care settings particularly against women with disabilities, or in prisons or detention centres. While these types of violence
have gendered dynamics, they also have significant distinct drivers and contributors. For this reason, the framework does not include strategies specifically aimed at
preventing these particular forms of violence, and supports the need for specialised approaches based on an understanding of the complex drivers of and contributors
to these practices, and an analysis of the specialised literature on each.
iv
While some drivers are distinct to particular types of violence (holding attitudes that sexually objectify women is a more significant driver of men’s non-partner sexual
assault, for instance, than it is of physical or psychological partner violence), the majority of drivers are shared across all studied types of violence against women:
see for example European Commission (2010) Factors at play in the perpetration of violence against women, violence against children and sexual orientation violence:
A multi-level interactive model; World Health Organization (2010) Preventing intimate partner and sexual violence against women: Taking action and generating evidence.
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