Watching free-to-air television in Australia, one gets the impression that Australia is a society which outright rejects violence against women and children. Legislative provisions appear to disallow violence against women and children. They appear to provide protection against violence, for women and children. Paradoxically, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reports that one in three women experience violence.
These figures demonstrate a serious failure in Australia. It's a failure that has occurred, and is occurring, at many levels. We fail in our homes. We fail whilst parenting, whilst using media technology (when we harass and bully people on line, our children are watching). We fail in our communities. We fail at the educational level. We fail in the work place. Our religious institutions fail, and I'd suggest that this is a most fundamental and persistent failure. Our religious institutions are one of the last places in which broad acceptance of and lively discussion about 'female authority' takes place. Without authority, women lack the power to say "no!" The institutions that exist to govern and protect the citizenry, reflect the failure of the citizenry. Our failure results in a complex, deeply embedded set of attitudes and practices, that over a couple of centuries have resulted in a society in which women are often abused.
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