About 16 Days in WA

Background

From 25 November, which is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, to 10 December, Human Rights Day, individuals and communities across Western Australia have an opportunity to show their support for ending violence against women, including family, domestic and sexual violence through 16 Days in WA – Stop Violence Against Women (16 Days in WA).

Our campaign draws inspiration from the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, an international initiative to end violence against women and girls across the world.

In Western Australia, 16 Days in WA aims to raise awareness, motivate positive action and highlight organisations, agencies, communities and individuals taking action to end violence against women.

The campaign is a State Government initiative which began in 2017.

Key messages

• Violence against anyone is unacceptable.
• We all have a responsibility to stop family and domestic violence.
• Stopping family and domestic violence means promoting gender equality and respectful relationships.
• Play your part to help keep your family and community safe.
• Educating young people about healthy relationships, gender equity, and consent is a simple way we can support boys and men to create safer relationships and reduce their likelihood of gender-based violence in adulthood.
• Everyone can make a difference by:
  • calling out disrespectful behaviour and harmful views when they hear it
  • modelling respect towards girls and women, especially when in positions of authority
  • teaching children respect and helping them to navigate healthy relationships.
• While not all men perpetrate violence, all men play a role in contributing to a community that rejects the social norms that allows gender-based violence to occur.

Facts and statistics

Violence in Western Australia

• A national survey on victims shows in WA:
  • the number of victims of assault increased by 10% to 47,045 victims, the highest recorded across the thirty-year time series. 65% of assaults were family and domestic violence related (30,451).
• 31% of all sexual assault incidents were family and domestic violence related. (Australian Bureau of Statistics)
• In 2023-24, the number of family violence incidents attended by police and reported to the Department of Communities rose to 53,841 (Department of Communities).
• An estimated 305,400 women in WA (30%) have experienced physical, emotional or economic abuse by a cohabiting partner with:
  • 19% having experienced physical and/or sexual violence
  • 24% having experienced emotional abuse
  • 16% experiencing economic abuse (Australian Bureau of Statistics).

Violence against women

• Aboriginal women are 32 times more likely to be hospitalised because of violence than non-Aboriginal women. (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare).
• The Australian Bureau of Statistics estimates 1 in 4 women are victim-survivors of intimate partner violence compared to 1 in 14 men (Australian Bureau of Statistics).
• More than 1 in 3 Australian men (35%) aged 18-65 years have used intimate partner violence in their lifetime, with an estimated 120,000 men each year starting to use it for the first time (Australian Institute of Family Studies).
• In Australia during 2023-24, an average of 1 woman was killed every 8 days by an intimate partner (Australian Institute of Criminology).
• The national homicide monitoring program showed eleven intimate partner homicides (nine female and two male) in WA for 2023-24 (Australian Institute of Criminology).
• A national study on child maltreatment shows 39.6% experienced exposure to domestic violence as a child (Australian Child Maltreatment Study).

Men and boys in prevention of violence against women

• Men’s families and social networks are essential to encouraging healthy forms of masculinity and reduce harmful ideas about what it means to be a man (The Man Box, 2024).
• Fathers who take an active role in parenting, not only model gender-equal parenting to their children but also support more equitable gender dynamics in the distribution of unpaid work in the family (Our Watch, 2025).
• Nearly two-thirds of young men aged 16-25 in Australia regularly engage with online masculinity ‘influencers’ promoting potentially harmful views towards women (Movember Institute of Men’s Health, 2025).
• Young men watching masculinity influencers were more likely to report negative views towards women and their roles in relationships (Movember Institute of Men’s Health, 2025).
• Masculinity influences are most effectively counteracted by positive male role models (Movember Institute of Men’s Health, 2025).

Did you know?

• Family violence continues to be a driver of gender inequality, including in the areas of employment, participation and financial security.
• Family and domestic violence is also the leading cause of homelessness for women and children and a significant factor impacting health, inclusion and participation for people with disability.
• Aboriginal and culturally and linguistically diverse women and children, people with disability and people who identify as LGBTIQA+ experience family and domestic violence at disproportionately high rates.
• Coercive control is family and domestic violence. Coercive control is a pattern of abusive behaviour, not just a single behaviour or incident.
• Technology-facilitated abuse is a form of domestic, family and sexual violence in which perpetrators control, stalk and harass their victims using digital technology.
• Intimate partner violence is the greatest health risk factor (greater than smoking, alcohol and obesity) for women aged 18 to 44 years and contributes more to the burden of disease (the impact of illness, disability and premature death) of women in this age range than any other risk factor.
• There are still concerning proportions of people whose attitudes undermine women’s leadership, reinforce rigid gender roles, limit women’s personal autonomy, normalise sexism and deny gender inequality is a problem.
• Research shows that fixed gender norms, emotional suppression, male entitlement, and early exposure to violence or trauma are key contributors to men's use of violence.
• Receiving social support and paternal affection are protective factors against use of intimate partner violence.