HCHR-The public outcry in Australia around abuse of power and discrimination against women around the country is on the rise. Gender inequality continues to be a significant barrier to the realization of rights and access to opportunities for girls and women in Australia. The unequal status of women and girls in Australia is underlined by structural and systemic gendered inequalities. Data shows 1 in 3 women in Australia has experienced violence since the age of 15 and1 in 3 women has been sexually harassed since the age of 15.
Regarding Femicide, a sharp rise in the number of women allegedly killed by men has caused concerns among Australian citizens. There were 61 women killed by family and domestic violence related homicide in 2021, the latest official reporting period. The figures suddenly increased in early 2023. The Australian Femicide Watch’s database has registered 55 deaths of women and children this year, including 11 in the three weeks of December.
Intimate partner homicide is the most common form of homicide in Australia and accounted for 21% of all homicides in 2018–19, and 62% of all domestic homicides. There have been an average of 68 such killings a year since 1989-90, most perpetrated by a male offender against a female partner.
According to the 2019 Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report (AIHW, 2019) on domestic violence, in 2016-17 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women aged 15 and over were 34 times as likely to be hospitalized for family violence as non-Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women. This figure is higher for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women living in remote areas. Women with disabilities experience higher rates of intimate partner violence, sexual violence, and emotional abuse than women without disabilities. Women and children with disability also experience violence outside of a family setting or intimate partner relationship. One in three women has experienced physical violence since the age of 15, and one in five has experienced sexual violence.
New data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in 2020 shows the number of sexual assaults reported around Australia has risen to an all-time high. In 2021, more than 31,000 people were recorded as victims of sexual assault, 13% up from the previous year. Three in five victims reporting assaults were under 18 years of age at the date of the incident.
Moreover, the female prison population in Australia is snowballing. The future of imprisoned women and their children looks pretty vulnerable. The incarcerated women have experienced disproportionately high rates of mental health problems, drug and alcohol addiction, and homelessness. In June 2022, women comprised 7% of Australia’s overall prison population (3,008 women). The former Deputy Director of the Gender and Family Violence Prevention Centre revealed that female prisoners are the fastest-growing prison population in Australia. Approximately 98& of incarcerated women have histories of victimization and trauma, and close to 85% have been the victims of violence and one-third of Australia’s female prison population are Indigenous women. And as pointed out in another report, Indigenous women in Australia are imprisoned at more than 20 times the rate of non-Indigenous women.
A 2022 Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre report also shows that nearly one million Australians live in severe poverty – a situation much more pronounced for women than men. The report reveals a clear gender gap in poverty in Australia. It is more pronounced for young women and women approaching retirement.Women face a cascade of gender-specific financial assaults across their lifetimes, resulting in a reverse-wealth trajectory. The assaults are so deeply entrenched that more than a third of single women will live in poverty by the age of 60. Australian women’s ranking on the Global Gender Gap Index went into freefall in 2021, dropping from 44 to 50 (behind Zimbabwe and Montenegro).
That’s because Australian women form 67% of part-time workers and earn 14.1% less than men. While women comprise nearly 50% of the workforce, only a third occupy key management positions across all industries. Even fewer women are represented as CEOs and chairs of boards (18% and 15%, respectively). The national gender pay gap is 14.1%. On average, women working full-time earned $1,609.00, while men working full-time earned $1,872.90. Full-time average weekly earnings difference between women and men is $263.90.
Access to housing in Australia is also shaped by gender. Women’s experiences of economic inequality, including but not limited to the over-representation of women in key poverty indicators and the gender wealth, income, and retirement gaps, combine with an increasingly unaffordable housing market to undermine the position of women in housing systems. Women make up 52% of the 886 200 people on low incomes in rental stress (paying more than 30% of their income on rent). 38% of people approaching Specialist Homelessness Services do so as a result of domestic and family violence. And 92% of this group are women and children.
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