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How the gendered drivers and reinforcing factors
increase the prevalence of violence against women
This section has demonstrated that violence against
women is not caused or determined by any single factor.
But as the number of relevant factors and their degree of
influence increases, so does the probability of violence
against women, as shown in Figure 7. A model to predict
or explain the prevalence of violence against women must
consider the whole range of social factors that increase the
probability of men using violence against women.
The drivers of violence against women outlined in this section
are both simple and complex. They are simple, because there
is consensus that violence against women is inextricably bound
to gender inequalities in public and private life.
They are complex because:
• gender inequalities operate in a multitude of ways,
and some are more influential than others
• there are a number of other factors that interact with
gender inequalities to exacerbate or reinforce violence
against women
• other forms of social, political and historical
discrimination and disadvantage intersect with, and
affect the relative influence of, these drivers and
reinforcing factors in any one context.
A shared framework for the primary prevention of violence
against women and their children in Australia must respond
to this complexity. It needs to address these drivers in a
holistic way that recognises how they interact and reinforce
one another. It needs to do this at all levels, from the
individual to the social. The following sections present
actions to address the identified drivers of violence against
women and the reinforcing factors, and point to the kinds
of prevention initiatives that have been effective.
As the influence
and/or number
of these factors
increases...
S T R U C T U R E S
Gendered drivers
of violence against
women, and
reinforcing factors
N O R M S
P R A C T I C E S
... so does the probability
of violence against women
Figure 7 Model for understanding the probability of violence against women
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