Respect Starts With A Conversation campaign FAQs

Who is running the campaign?

Respect Victoria is the dedicated agency for the primary prevention of family violence and violence against women in Victoria. Primary prevention seeks to stop family violence and violence against women from occurring in the first place by addressing the underlying drivers of violence.  

How long will the campaign run?

This campaign will run for four weeks and be in-market from Sunday 2 June – Sunday 30 June 2024. Social media advertising will go live on Monday 3 June in line with moderation commencement.  

What are the aims and objectives of the campaign?

This campaign aims to help Victorians understand how harmful gender stereotypes and roles can impact our relationships, families, and communities. Assumptions about our skills, the way we should look, act and think based on gender limits all of us. This campaign aims to support communities to challenge harmful attitudes so that we can build a world where we are all safe, equal and respected.  

This campaign features real stories from people across Victoria discussing the actions they’ve taken and conversations they’ve had to foster respect in their relationships, sports clubs and friendships.  

What communication channels are being used in this campaign?

Channels will include:

• Newspaper/print (regional)  
• Social media, online video, YouTube and digital display (regional and metro)  
• Radio and audio (regional and metro)  
• Out of home – including Rail Portraits, Street Furniture, Rail Screens and Rail Consecutives (regional and metro)
• Cinema (regional and metro)

Multicultural Channels - Arabic, Cantonese, Hindi, Mandarin and Vietnamese.

• Social media, online video and YouTube (regional and metro)  
• Radio and audio (regional and metro)  
• Out of home – including Rail Portraits, Street Furniture, Rail Screens and Rail Consecutives (metro) 

Why have the resources been translated into Arabic, Cantonese, Hindi, Mandarin and Vietnamese?

The five languages chosen are based on demographic data. They reflect the largest multicultural communities in Victoria and the ability to reach the most people.

Why should we challenge harmful gender stereotypes?

We all deserve to be safe, equal and respected.  

But growing up, we are all shaped by beliefs and assumptions based on our gender. Treating assumptions about gender as rules to live by can create problems – for instance, assumptions and beliefs that men are dominant and aggressive, and women weak and vulnerable. These assumptions become harmful ideas that we can take into our homes, relationships, workplaces and communities. Together they create a culture where violence against women thrives.  

Conversations are an essential part of challenging these assumptions and beliefs to help create a safer and more equal society. They are how we understand the need to act, and what actions will be safe and effective.  

Respect Starts With A Conversation was designed to support Victorians to start those conversations. It features real Victorians talking about how they have these conversations in their homes, relationships, workplaces and communities.  

Driving down rates of violence now and into the future requires an enormous, collective effort in responding to violence, helping victim-survivors recover and heal from violence, intervening early to stop violence happening or escalating, and preventing violence from occurring in the first place. Conversations about how we prevent men’s violence against women, and all forms of gender-based violence, are a one part of this collective effort. 

What can you do to challenge harmful gender stereotypes?

• Talk to your partner about how you can share the housework or parenting in a way that works for everyone.
• Teach children it’s okay to express their emotions, regardless of their gender.
• Talk to someone about how they treat their partner if you notice they talk down to them, or aren’t treating them with respect.  
• Have discussions at your local sports club about treating people of all genders equally
• Respect and asking for a person's pronouns
• Let someone know a sexist or homophobic comment is not okay.
• Support your friends and be there for them if they need to talk, showing them that feelings aren’t a weakness.  

What has challenging gender stereotypes and roles got to do with preventing violence against women?

Harmful ideas about who we should be, how we should be treated, and how we should act based on gender hold us all back. For example, violence thrives on the idea that men should be tough and not show vulnerability, and that women should ‘put up’ with disrespect. When a power imbalance is created – whether it’s gender, sexuality, race or ability - people are less likely to challenge discrimination and violence.  

Harmful gender roles and attitudes manifest within all levels of society and appear in different settings where people live, learn, work, and socialise. When people carry these assumptions and attitudes around gender, there is a compounding social pressure for people to conform to these beliefs which is harmful and limiting to all of us.  

What is primary prevention?

Primary prevention of family violence and violence against women is about changing the underlying social conditions that produce and drive this violence, and that excuse, justify or even promote it to prevent it from occurring in the first place. Violence against women and family violence are preventable if we change the environment that allows it to happen.  

What is ‘violence against women’?

Violence against women is any act of gender-based violence that causes or could cause physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women, including threats of harm or coercion, in public or in private life. – United Nations Declaration

Different forms of violence that women, young women and girls experience include:

• Intimate partner violence, including dating violence.
• Sexual violence (whether perpetrated by someone they know or by a stranger).
• Sexual harassment (whether in workplaces, public spaces or online).
• Specific types of violence that are primarily experienced by particular communities of women and girls (such as dowry-related abuse, sexual and reproductive coercion, so-called ‘honour crimes’, sex trafficking and other slavery-like practices, female genital mutilation/cutting, and child/early and forced marriage).
• Violence that occurs in institutional settings for example, violence in prisons, in aged care facilities, disability or residential care settings or health education settings. (1)

What drives violence against women?

Violence against women is driven by a society that allows it to happen. Preventing men’s violence against women focuses on the culture that shapes individual behaviours that allow violence to occur.

Evidence points to four factors that most consistently predict or ‘drive’ violence against women and explain its gendered patterns:

1. Condoning of violence against women  
2. Men’s control of decision-making and limits to women’s independence in public and private life  
3. Rigid gender roles and stereotyped constructions of masculinity and femininity  
4. Male peer relations that emphasise aggression and disrespect towards women. (2) 

Why is the focus on women?

Violence against women takes a profound and long-term toll on women’s health and wellbeing, on families and communities, and on society as a whole.

• On average, one woman a week is murdered by her current or former partner. (3)
• One in three women (30.5%) has experienced physical violence since the age of 15. (4)
• One in five women (18%) has experienced sexual violence since the age of 15. (5)
• One in three women (31.1%) has experienced physical and/or sexual violence perpetrated by a man they know. (6)
• Almost 10 women a day are hospitalised for assault injuries perpetrated by a spouse or domestic partner. (7)
• The intersections of homophobia, biphobia and transphobia with the gendered drivers of violence against women means that lesbian, bisexual and trans women can experience additional, unique forms of violence as a result of their gender identity and/or sexual orientation, including threats of ‘outing’ or shaming (connected to sexual orientation, gender identity or HIV status), or, for those who are HIV-positive or taking hormones to affirm their gender, withholding of hormones or medication. (8)
• One in five Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women aged 15 and over has experienced physical violence in a 12-month period. Over one-third of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women who have experienced physical violence in the year preceding 2014-15 identified an intimate partner as the perpetrator of their most recent experience of physical violence. (9)
• Women with disabilities in Australia are around two times more likely than women without disabilities to have experienced sexual violence and intimate partner violence. (10)
• Australia’s full-time gender pay gap is 14.2 per cent, with women earning on average $261.50 per week less than men. (11)
• On average, women spend nearly 32 hours a week on household labour and caring for children, compared with nearly 19 hours by men. (12) 

The 2021 National Community Attitudes towards Violence against Women Survey, or NCAS tells a concerning story:

• A concerning number (41%) of Australians believe that domestic violence is committed equally by both men and women, despite evidence definitively showing that men are the primary perpetrators of domestic violence.
• While the majority of Australians believe that violence against women is a problem across the country, less than half believe it is a problem in the suburb or town they live in.
• 34% of people believe that it is still common for sexual assault accusations to be used as a way of getting back at men.
• 35% of people believe that many women exaggerate how unequally women are treated in Australia. 

Support Pathways

If you are experiencing family violence, concerned for your safety, or in an emergency situation, please call 000 for urgent police assistance. For a comprehensive list of recommended specialist support organisations, refer to the ‘contact us’ section of Respect Victoria website.

If you have any feedback in relation to this campaign, please contact us via the following email address: contact@respectvictoria.vic.gov.au.