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By Sarah Capper<\/a> May 24, 2013<\/p>\n A couple of months ago, I took a cab ride into Melbourne city. The conversation moved to what job I had \u2013 and when I mentioned the Victorian Women\u2019s Trust<\/a>, the young male cab driver looked a bit perplexed. I explained that the Trust funds projects addressing discrimination and disadvantage faced by women and girls living in Victoria, only to be greeted by more confused looks.<\/p>\n When he asked specifically what I worked on, I said \u2018Communications and Policy\u2019, and the conversation drifted towards law reform and I mentioned working on addressing men\u2019s violence against women.<\/p>\n He asked about laws relating to this. I mentioned family violence, sexual offences and how many laws over history were created by men and not necessarily ideal in terms of outcomes for women. I then made the quip that it was only in the early 1980s that rape in marriage became illegal. This caused the biggest eyebrow raise, which I could see through his rear vision mirror from the backseat.<\/p>\n \u201cRape in marriage?\u201d he said, with a high inflection in his voice that indicated a question.<\/p>\n \u201cWell, when a woman, in this case, a wife, is forced to have sex with her husband, without her consent, against her will \u2013 as in raped,\u201d I tried.<\/p>\n \u201cBut what do you mean?\u201d he genuinely asked, followed by an incredulous, \u201cShe\u2019s my wife!\u201d.<\/p>\n I could see we needed a much longer cab ride to address the \u2018confusion\u2019. I had one more attempt at explaining, paid the fare, and was again reminded of the world I inhabit, and the disconnect between the \u2018ordinary person\u2019 and the sector I work in, and how there is a daunting amount of work to continue.<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n Last week I was at the inaugural White Ribbon International conference<\/a>, where participants were overloaded in hearing three days of talks centred on the prevention of men\u2019s violence against women.<\/p>\n The official opening of the conference included a panel of pollies \u2013 welcoming guests to Sydney and all talking the talk on their commitment to violence prevention.<\/p>\n We had the Federal Minister for the Status of Women, Julie Collins, open the conference with a $1 million announcement to set up a new national organisation to engage with the community on preventing violence against women and children. Collins apologized for the Prime Minister being unable to attend, because she was attending to a little document known as the \u2018Federal Budget\u2019.<\/p>\n Collins was followed by the Shadow federal Minister, Senator Michaelia Cash, who told us the issue was \u201cabove politics\u201d and talked about how committed Opposition Leader Tony Abbott is in addressing the issue. So committed, she mentioned \u2018Tony\u2019s Pollie Pedal\u2019 and raising money for the Manly women\u2019s refuge in his electorate.<\/p>\n Cash departed after giving her speech \u2013 noted at the start of the NSW Women\u2019s Minister Pru Goward\u2019s address, \u201cand I thank Senator Cash who is leaving now\u201d, and the others followed suit soon after their official duties and the session ended.<\/p>\n Inside the conference booklet, we had a message from the Prime Minister Julia Gillard, about how the \u201cAustralian Government stands with White Ribbon in its endeavour\u201d.<\/p>\n This was followed by a message from Victoria\u2019s Minister for Community Services Mary Wooldridge, who wrote of the State\u2019s Action Plan to Address Violence against Women and Children as covering \u201cprevention, early intervention, and response measures\u201d.<\/p>\n And finally there was a message from federal Green leader Senator Christine Milne, who wrote about campaigning to make domestic and family violence as a separate form of discrimination in law. On the surface, it appears that politicians really care about this issue.<\/p>\n The conference itself included a mix of speakers from around the country, with some international \u2018gurus\u2019 in the prevention of men\u2019s violence against women also attending \u2013 like White Ribbon founder Michael Kaufman and educator and author Jackson Katz.<\/p>\n Both gave arresting presentations, with Katz in particular honing in on some home truths. Katz joked about being applauded for stating the bleeding obvious on various issues that even still seem to be missed by mainstream media discussion \u2013 for instance he talked about the gun massacres in the United States and noted that of the last 60 odd gun massacres, all but one were perpetrated by men \u2013 and how that if this had been reversed in terms of gender, there would be widespread discussion about \u2018what is wrong with our women?\u2019 \u2013 yet instead, the debate focuses on gun control and mental health, and is devoid of gender analysis.<\/p>\n Kaufman talked about the history of White Ribbon, and its humble Canadian beginnings around kitchen tables, and talked about how societies which have bigger gaps in gender equality and reinforce traditional roles of men and women, also have higher rates of men\u2019s violence against women.<\/p>\n This point was superbly articulated in the keynote address by Dr Michael Flood, one of Australia\u2019s experts in men\u2019s violence against women and in gender studies:<\/p>\n Men perpetrate violence against women because they believe in gender inequality.<\/p>\n Men assault and control their wives and partners because they believe that men should have status and authority over women, that they have a right to punish \u2018their\u2019 women; and that violence is a legitimate form of punishment (Adler, 1992: 269). Men pressure and coerce women into sex because they believe in gender inequality: that they are entitled to access to women\u2019s bodies; that women are malicious and dishonest; that men should be strong and forceful and dominant.<\/p>\n Another way of putting this is that there is a crucial link between men\u2019s violence against women and sexism. Men\u2019s use of violence in intimate relationships \u201cis particularly reinforced by sexism, the ideology of male supremacy and superiority\u201d (Gamache, 1990: 71).<\/p>\n Taking a global view, rates of men\u2019s violence against women are higher in societies in which manhood is culturally defined in terms of dominance, toughness, or male honour. Rates of violence against women are higher in societies with rigid gender roles.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nSheilas<\/a> editor<\/p>\n