Month: March 2020

Women released from prison are at much greater risk of violence

We found women released from prison were 16 times more likely to die from violence than women of the same age in the general population. Although the vast majority of people in prison in Australia are men, women who experience incarceration are particularly vulnerable to violence.

The number of women, particularly Indigenous women, in Australian prisons is increasing. It is estimated that between 57% and 90% of women in prison have been victims of violence.

Women who have been to prison should be a priority group for violence prevention. They need enhanced transitional support when leaving prison to secure safe housing, employment and access to mental health, alcohol and other drug services.

Source: Women released from prison are at much greater risk of violence

Five facts every Australian needs to know about men at work

The Wife Drought persists.

76% of full-time working fathers in Australia have a spouse who either did not work at all in the paid workforce , or worked part-time. 15% of full-time working Australia mothers had the same deal.

The Parent Pay Gap is real.

When it comes to total income earned over 40 years, a man without children, on average, will earn $2 million. For dads, this goes up to $2.5 million. A woman without children will earn $1.9 million but for mums it falls to $1.3 million.

Stay at home dads are rare. Ridiculously rare.

Back in 1991, 4% of families in Australia had a stay at home dad. In the year 2016 that increased by a massive 1%. Just 5% of Australian families have a stay at home dad.

Part-time work is still for mums.

When it comes to part time work in families with children under 12, only 5% of dads access it compared to 44% of mums.

Dads aren’t taking paid parental leave offered by the government.

Between 2010 and 2019, 1,236,675 females received the government’s paid parental leave. In that same time period there were just 6,250 male recipients.

Source: Five facts every Australian needs to know about men at work

Women Who Need Abortions May Not Get Them As Coronavirus Travel Rules Could Trap Doctors

Exclusive: Australia’s biggest abortion provider resorted to calling the COVID-19 hotline in an attempt to find answers for its patients as health departments aren’t responding.

Four doctors (two in Queensland, one in South Australia and one in New South Wales) were due to travel this week but the South Australian health department has advised MSA doctors leaving that state will need to self-isolate.

Source: Women Who Need Abortions May Not Get Them As Coronavirus Travel Rules Could Trap Doctors

COVID-19 puts women in New Zealand’s sex trade in more danger than ever; why isn’t the decrim lobby helping?

The New Zealand Prostitute’s Collective response to COVID-19 highlights the fact that full decriminalization of prostitution does not actually protect women.

“Those who defend decriminalized prostitution often argue that completely eliminating the risk of the violence and disease involved with prostitution is not possible, because prostitution is inevitable and cannot be stopped, and because it is essential — some men simply cannot live without sexual access to women. So, offering women pamphlets and condoms, and normalizing prostitution by legitimizing it legally, is the best that can be done.

…after the COVID-19 lockdown was announced, NZPC updated the front page of their website to announce that prostitution must be halted by midnight on Wednesday…

There are also some assumptions underlying NZPC’s decision to target prostituted women with its instructions to “STOP PHYSICAL CONTACT SEX WORK BY MIDNIGHT WEDNESDAY.” According to studies that NZPC helped to carry out, 72 per cent of these women are stuck in the sex industry due to circumstance. A 2007 survey conducted by NZPC to review the current laws showed that 10 per cent of women in prostitution say they “Don’t know how to leave,” 8.5 per cent say they “can’t get help to leave,” 24 per cent “don’t know what else to do,” and 29.5 per cent “have no other income.”

Yet NZPC assume that it is these very women who have the power and responsibility to shut down the industry. They assume it is the “supply,” not the “demand” — or more accurately, the victims, not the perpetrators — who should be threatened with state intervention in case of “failure to comply.” Will prostituted women be arrested? Are we going to see a return of the brothel raids that police used to carry out before the Prostitution Reform Act? Will this be endorsed by NZPC?”

Source: COVID-19 puts women in New Zealand’s sex trade in more danger than ever; why isn’t the decrim lobby helping?

How Coronavirus Is Affecting Victims of Domestic Violence

[D]uring times of crisis—such as natural disasters, wars, and epidemics—the risk of gender-based-violence escalates. In China, the number of domestic violence cases reported to the local police tripled in February compared to the previous year, according to Axios. Activists say this is a result of enforced lockdown.

“We know that domestic violence is rooted in power and control,” says Ray-Jones. “Right now, we are all feeling a lack of control over our lives and an individual who cannot manage that will take it out on their victim.” She says that while the number of abuse cases may not rise during the coronavirus crisis, people who were already in an abusive situation will likely find themselves facing more extreme violence, and can no longer escape by going to work or seeing friends.

The current crisis also makes it more difficult for victims to seek help.

For many women, even the fear of contracting the coronavirus is stopping them from seeking out medical care after experiencing physical abuse.

Many victims also feel that they can no longer seek refuge at their parents’ home, for fear that they could expose their elderly parents to the virus.

Source: How Coronavirus Is Affecting Victims of Domestic Violence | Time

Mandemic

. The government’s recently-published list of key workers, for instance, includes a number of predominantly female occupational groups, like nurses, care workers and supermarket staff, who will all be at heightened risk because of the personal contact their jobs involve (these are also, and will doubtless remain, among the lowest-paid jobs on the key worker list). The absence of women from pandemic ‘war cabinets’ isn’t just a symbolic issue, it’s a ‘nothing about us without us’ issue.

The idea of ‘home’ as a safe haven, a shelter from the dangers of the outside world, may be less than soothing when you’re the one who will be expected to do even more caring than usual, in conditions of household isolation (i.e., without a break, or any of the usual social supports), and possibly with drastically reduced economic resources.

There’s also the point that for some women ‘home’ is a place of danger rather than safety. Reported incidents of domestic violence increase significantly even during relatively brief holiday periods; it’s horrifying to think about what could happen during a lockdown lasting weeks or months.

Source: Mandemic | language: a feminist guide

Transitioning children: where do our responsibilities lie?

Official Post from Despatches From The Matriarchy: First presented Brisbane Meanjin IWD, 2020With thanks to the committee for their generous invitation to speak.

Source: Transitioning children: where do our responsibilities lie? | Despatches From The Matriarchy on Patreon

As A Transsexual, I Support Dr Eva Poen

From a transsexual perspective, biological reality is all too apparent. Denying the existence of male and female bodies helps nobody.

It strikes me as both curious and counter-productive; these people who claim to be women yet seem to hate them so much. Unless, of course, they bow down and supplicate before them: ‘yes, yes, yes. Of course you are a woman. Even you with the beard and the testicles. Even you with the penis bulging from your tight skirt’ (and yes, that really did happen).

And what I feel equally curious is that the principal target of ‘trans activists’ is women, particularly those women who stand up for their rights in the face of some pretty spiteful name-calling and threats of physical violence (‘shut up terf’ is a frequent meme on Twitter). Yet the most serious threat to their personal safety comes from men, it’s men who beat up ‘trannies’ on the streets of the UK, it’s men who rape and murder ‘trans’ sex workers in the shanty towns of South American cities, men who get kicks out of ‘she-male’ pornography. Women represent virtually zero physical threat to transwomen, but transwomen, certainly those who retain their male genitalia will always be a danger to women. And when they’re found guilty of assaulting women, they’ll insist on their right to be housed in a female prison.

They’re setting the clock back thirty years or more, to a time when people like me were ridiculed and held up as freaks. I’ve worked hard to get to the position I find myself in today, I’ll be damned if I let any cult undermine it.

Source: As A Transsexual, I Support Dr Eva Poen – Uncommon Ground

‘I would have died without that support’: Victoria cuts vital court funding

In light of recent family violence tragedies, a decision to cut funding for crucial support is “short-sighted”, former royal commission judge Marcia Neave told Lawyers Weekly.

Almost 20 volunteers with the Court Network will no longer have the resources to assist domestic violence victims in the Family Court and Federal Circuit Court after $130,000 was cut from Victorian Legal Aid and assistance rejected by the federal government.

Established in 1980, and placed in family courts in 1990, Court Network provided free, non-legal support. Prior to being cut in Queensland last year, the network helped more than 205,000 court users. Across 37 locations in Victoria and Queensland, volunteers contributed collectively at least 129,600 hours, equivalent of 65 full-time positions.

Source: ‘I would have died without that support’: Victoria cuts vital court funding – Lawyers Weekly

Law Council wants family law inquiry discontinued after One Nation live broadcast hearings

The Law Council of Australia has called for the abandonment of a federal parliamentary inquiry into the family law system, citing concerns that the hearings are “being used for political purposes” to undermine domestic violence claims made by women.

The Law Council president, Pauline Wright, has written to the chair of the inquiry, Liberal MP Kevin Andrews, to formally complain about the live broadcast on the hearings by One Nation last week.

“What is of most concern to the Law Council is that some of the evidence given, mainly by women, has been the subject of scorn and denigrating comment on the One Nation Facebook sites.

“As well, lawyers from women’s organisations were the subject of particularly negative commentary. Comments include that women lawyers are ‘bitches’, ‘evil’, ‘snakes’, and ‘fugly’.

“As well as some generally offensive comments, many of the comments perpetuate discredited notions about domestic violence; for example, denying that the vast preponderance of domestic violence is perpetrated by men upon women and that women are ‘liars’. The Law Council is particularly concerned that this commentary may incite or excuse domestic violence.”

Source: Law Council wants family law inquiry discontinued after One Nation live broadcast hearings | Law | The Guardian