Gender inequality creates different worlds for men and women, a group of Bendigonians heard at a violence prevention forum yesterday.
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Among a string of insightful speakers at the forum driven to create respectful relationships among our youth were former AFL great Luke Ablett and Ebony Bennett, deputy director at Canberra-based think-tank The Australia Institute.
Ms Bennett said their research, surveying 1400 Australians, showed a shocking nine in 10 women had experienced street harassment in their lives.
Women feel unsafe ... they might put their keys between their fingers to defend themselves.
- Ebony Bennett
“Because women feel unsafe, women change their behaviour in a range of ways that men often don't even think about,” she said.
“They might avoid exercising after dark, avoid walking home alone, they might put their keys between their fingers to defend themselves.”
She said the onus needed to shift onto male perpetrators who engage in street harassment or violence.
She said gender inequality in all its forms – ranging from the pay gap to child rearing to intimate partner violence – all had the same sexist attitude at their core.
“Those same attitudes essentially underpin all the men's violence against women,” she said.
“We really need to be examining toxic masculinity and challenging that; finding way to change attitudes and behaviour right across the culture.”
Luke Ablett agreed there was a complex web of gender attitudes, power and control that manifested as men’s violence against women.
He said while men barely gave a second thought to walking alone to a train station, it was an entirely different experience for women.
“It highlights the different world that men and women live in and the different ways men and women experience space,” he said.
“This is something guys don't think about.”
He said men were taught from a young age that being likened to a “girl” – on the sporting field or any other area of society – was to be cast as weak or inferior.
“We're told ‘don't throw like a girl, don't play like a girl’. Young boys are told in many ways that women are inferior and one of the worst things to be is a girl,” he said.
He said such attitudes were key drivers of violence against women.
“They are so pervasive and so normalised that we think they are inevitable,” he said.
Catholic College Bendigo students Godwill Basha and Madison Westbrook took lessons from the forum.
“It was pretty shocking to find out women feel that unsafe,” Godwill said.
“It’s sad. We shouldn’t have to [feel unsafe and put keys between our fingers for safety],” Madison said.
If you are experiencing violence or sexual assault, call 1800 RESPECT on 1800 737 732.