When you bring up gender equality or prevention of violence against women messages, it's likely that you will face resistance or even backlash. It's an uncomfortable experience for most people when their long-held beliefs are challenged.
Encountering resistance is not necessarily a bad thing, and in some instances can indicate that you are having a difficult but necessary conversation to help someone think about, or reflect on, an issue in a new way. Any backlash you receive is likely to come from a small but vocal section of your community – it’s unfortunate but true that unhappy groups are louder than the supportive ones.
Proactively preparing for resistance and backlash is important for developing strategies and responses, and for caring for your own safety and wellbeing.
To prepare, you might:
- share this toolkit with your co-workers
- organise internal training and briefing
- customise or develop backlash response templates
- share internal communications guides
- connect local advocates and practitioners for support in responding to backlash
- use existing networks, including social worker advocates
- reflect on past experiences in managing backlash.
In previous years, councils and organisations involved in 16 Days of Activism grassroots initiative have shared their approaches for responding to resistance and backlash, including:
- blocking or removing offensive comments on social media (in a duty of care for others reading); not responding to less offensive comments
- arranging a phone call or in-person discussion with the person to acknowledge their comments, allow them to vent, and ensure they hear your reply
- engaging multiple managers to take the lead in providing responses to their departments.
Learn more:
- Facing resistance in your work – Safe and Equal
- Resistance and backlash in primary prevention of violence against women – Our Watch
- Unpacking Resistance training – Safe and Equal
- Overcoming Resistance and Backlash – Safe and Equal
- (En)countering resistance – VicHealth
Dealing with online abuse
It’s easy for people to say online what they wouldn’t say in person – so resistance is often expressed through social media.
As a social media moderator, it’s important to strike a balance between allowing audiences to self-moderate, and intervening when comments are offensive and derail constructive conversation.
Having clear moderation guidelines will support you to effectively manage resistance on online forums.
How to frame responses to resistance
Using values-based messaging as a framework can be a useful way to develop your response.
Remember: don’t get too caught up in an unproductive conversation with someone who is determined to not change their mind. Do use evidence to debunk their untrue statements, but don’t let them pull you into a repetitive or unproductive argument – move on and don’t let them frustrate you.
Example resistance statement response
A common resistance question can be, “What about violence against men?” The following example shows how you could frame your response, using values-based messaging. We’ve used statistics from Safe and Equal’s Fast Facts 2023 to reinforce the message.
Vision
I agree with you that all forms of violence and discrimination are unacceptable.
Barrier
Men and women experience family violence, most commonly from a male perpetrator. This campaign focuses on violence against women because there is clear evidence that women experience violence at disproportionate rates. Women also experience casual and structural sexism daily in a way that men do not.
Most family and gender-based violence is perpetrated by cisgender men against women, children, LGBTIQ+ people – as well as other men. 95% of all victims, regardless of gender, experience violence from a male perpetrator.
Solution
Advocating for the safety, equality and rights of women doesn’t detract from the safety, equality and rights of others. We are trying to create a society where we are all safe, equal and respected – which means challenging the underlying conditions that drive violence against women.