Features

Ending gender-based violence needs more than one kind of evidence

Dr Tessa Boyd-Caine, ANROWS CEO

Estimated read time: 5 minutes

 

Violence against women and children now features in the nightly news, our social media feeds, political debate and conversations with friends. With that attention, it can feel as though the problem is not getting better.

In fact, that awareness is a sign that change is underway. Violence within families and relationships is no longer treated as something that happens behind closed doors. Ending it is now everybody’s business.

 

Progress is being made

The evidence shows that several forms of violence against women have declined or held steady.

According to the latest Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) Personal Safety Survey 2021–22, fewer women had experienced violence by a cohabiting partner, emotional abuse by a cohabiting partner or sexual harassment in the previous 12 months than in 2016.

However, rates of sexual violence have remained similar, with young women most likely to have experienced it.

More people using violence are also coming to the attention of police. These rising numbers of recorded offenders are expected.

We know women are reluctant to report incidents because of fear of not being believed or being blamed by friends, family or police, and of being misidentified as the perpetrator. As public and police attitudes change and systemic barriers are removed, we expect more victim-survivors and bystanders to seek support from services.

Real progress is happening, but it is uneven, and it does not outweigh the harm that continues every day.

The question now is how we draw on every form of evidence available to keep that progress moving, and to reach the people it has not yet reached.

 

Research is one form of evidence

University research is an important source of evidence and has led to major breakthroughs across many fields. On its own, it cannot end domestic, family and sexual violence.

Evidence can take a long time to reach practice. In health, some studies have estimated that it takes an average of 17 years for medical research to reach everyday practice. Social policy can also face delays.

This is why practice-led evidence is needed alongside research. Skilled professionals in service settings know how best to support victim-survivors to recover and heal, and how best to work with people using violence so that they stop.

Lived expertise is also essential. In any room, we should assume there are people affected by this violence, whether or not they have shared that experience. Victim-survivors’ insights are critical to shaping service responses and early intervention.

 

Two-way learning with communities

Critical thinking lays the foundation for bringing different perspectives to wicked problems, and for developing the relationships that we need to address complex problems that do not have a single, simple solution.

For example, as a non-Indigenous organisation working for social change, it is not ANROWS’ role to tell Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities what to do. We also cannot leave communities to solve these problems on their own.

What we can do is commit to two-way learning. That means building relationships that allow knowledge to be shared in both directions, and learning from communities who hold deep expertise about the problems they face and the solutions that will work for them.

ANROWS-commissioned research by Macquarie University on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander healing programs that respond to family violence shows what this looks like. The project was Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander led and guided by a Knowledge Circle that included First Nations experts and leaders in healing and family violence.

The research reinforced the need for programs designed and led by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and for sustainable, long-term funding for healing programs led by First Nations people. The report calls for that funding to support families as a whole (people who have experienced family violence, as well as people who use it), men who have experienced violence, LGBTQIASB+ people and people with disability.

 

Different contexts need different expertise

Critical thinking and interdisciplinary approaches help us identify the intersecting factors that shape people’s experiences of violence and the responses that work for them.

These approaches show that ending violence against women and children must include working with men and boys. Violence is gendered, both in who experiences it and in who uses it. Approximately 95% of male victim-survivors and 94% of female victim-survivors of violence report a male perpetrator.

We also need expertise across cultural contexts, including First Nations, migrant and refugee communities.

 

Communicating complexity

How we communicate these findings matters. Three questions sit at the centre of this work:

• How do we recognise progress when this remains a deeply ingrained and systemic problem?
• How do we maintain hope that change is possible while people and communities continue to be harmed?
• How do we use measures of improvement to direct effort, especially where progress has been unequal?

Critical reflection, interdisciplinary approaches and clear communication can help us answer them.

A strong evidence base can only drive change when people know how to put it into practice. Communication is how evidence reaches the people who can act on it, whatever their background, education or role in the system.

 

Everyone has a role

Employers have a legal duty to take reasonable and proportionate measures to eliminate, as far as possible, workplace sexual harassment, sex discrimination, sexist behaviour and related victimisation. Embedding gender equality and respectful cultures into workplace systems and processes can support this.

Every person can make a difference through how they behave, and through how they reinforce or challenge the behaviours they see. That might be at work, as a volunteer, or as a friend or family member.

A commitment to learning, and to modelling the behaviours we want to see, is how each of us becomes part of the leadership for change.

Dr Boyd-Caine delivered an occasional address on this topic to graduates of Critical Indigenous Studies and the School of Communication, Society and Culture at Macquarie University on Thursday 8 October 2026.

 

Support is available

If you or someone else, including a child, is in immediate danger, call 000.

Visit our support directory to find national, state and territory helplines and services, including 24-hour support and interpreting assistance.

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Media contact:

Emmagness Ruzvidzo,
Media and Communications Manager, ANROWS
E: Emmagness.Ruzvidzo@anrows.org.au
M: 0468 322 800

About ANROWS

Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety (ANROWS) was established by the Commonwealth, state and territory governments under Australia’s first National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children (2010–2022). As an ongoing partner to the National Plan, ANROWS continues to build, strengthen and translate the evidence base that informs the current National Plan to End Violence against Women and Children (2022–2032).

With more than 150 research projects led, commissioned or contributed to, ANROWS delivers targeted evidence to inform practice, policy, and systems reform. We engage closely with victim-survivors, communities, service providers, governments and researchers to ensure our work reflects lived experience and supports collective action.

ANROWS is a not-for-profit company jointly funded by the Commonwealth and all state and territory governments. We are a registered harm prevention charity and deductible gift recipient, governed by the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC).