How do Australians view violence against women and gender inequality in 2023?

The latest results from ANROWS’s National Community Attitudes towards Violence against Women Survey (NCAS) are out, and they reveal that while Australians’ understanding and rejection of domestic and sexual violence have generally improved, we still have a long way to go.

The NCAS is a large-scale survey that measures how well Australians understand violence against women, how much we support gender equality, and how strongly we condone or reject violence against women. The NCAS is conducted every four years and has been led by ANROWS since 2017, providing us with a snapshot in time of Australia’s progress towards improved attitudes and understanding. The 2021 NCAS interviewed 19,100 Australians aged over 16 years and over via mobile phone.

Key findings from the 2021 NCAS include:

  • Overall, Australians have a good understanding of violence against women, and this has slowly but consistently improved over successive NCAS waves. Most Australians also reject attitudes that condone or reinforce gender inequality and violence against women.
  • Most Australians recognise that domestic violence and violence against women can take the form of many different behaviours, such as financial abuse and electronic monitoring.
  • There have been significant improvements in Australians’ understanding and rejection of sexual violence.
  • Concerningly, community understanding of the gendered nature of domestic violence has decreased, with 2 in 5 respondents mistakenly believing that domestic violence is perpetrated equally by men and women.
  • Some Australians still hold attitudes which minimise violence and shift blame to victims and survivors, which mistrust women, and which condone objectifying women or disregarding consent.
  • While most respondents (91%) believe that violence against women was a problem in Australia, only 47% believe that it is an issue in their own suburb or town.

These findings highlight the importance of continuing our work to prevent violence against women and promote gender equality in our communities. They can also help us to understand where we can focus our efforts and tailor our strategies to address the specific needs and challenges of different groups.

Join us for a free webinar on Thursday 29 June at 12pm AEST to learn more about the results of the 2021 NCAS and what they mean for your work. The webinar will feature a panel of experts who will discuss the NCAS findings and how they relate to prevalence data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ Personal Safety Survey. You will also hear from a representative of Our Watch about how the NCAS can inform upcoming primary prevention activities.

To register for the webinar, please visit: https://events.humanitix.com/spark-webinar-insights-from-the-ncas-and-pss-implications-for-primary-prevention-practice. You will receive a confirmation email with details on how to join the webinar. The webinar will be recorded and made available on the WorkUP Queensland website afterwards.

We hope you can join us for this informative and engaging session. Together, we can use the evidence from the NCAS and other sources to inform our policies and practices to end violence against women and their children.