According to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, the average temperature in 2023 was 0.17C higher than in 2016, (the previous record year) with the causes of increased global heating attributed largely to record emissions of carbon dioxide along with the natural climate phenomenon El Niño.

It was so hot in fact, that C3S director Carlo Buontempo described it yesterday as “a very exceptional year, climate-wise… in a league of its own, even when compared to other very warm years.”

But it won’t be exceptional for long. Ten days into 2024, there’s no sign of relief. While the world is yet to breach the 2015 Paris Agreement target of preventing global warming surpassing 1.5C, climate scientists warn that the figure is likely to eclipse that this year.

And we know that it’s women who will bear the brunt of climate change impacts both in Australia and across the world. It’s women who will lose job and education opportunities. It’s women who will face a myriad of adverse health affects. It’s women who will be left most vulnerable.

And it’s this knowledge of the escalation of climate change and ongoing heatwaves, coupled with the sheer injustice of society’s expectation on women to cover up, that really tips me over the edge.

Living on the Northern Rivers of NSW’s far north coast, days here in Summer regularly climb well beyond 35 degrees.

And, do you know what I see? I see women all around me suffering. I watch as they throw themselves down in coffee shops, breathing heavily and wiping sweat from their faces. Their visible bra lines digging into their shoulders, and shirts clinging mercilessly to sticky bodies. I see them grappling with small children and laptops and mental loads the size of Antarctica (which is incidentally where they’d rather be).

Men on the other hand? They casually stride around shirtless; on the street, in shopping centres, at parks, at the beach.

They don’t feel unsafe to do so. They don’t feel embarrassed. They don’t feel ashamed. They don’t (generally) feel uneasily sexualised and objectified.

While in Australia, indecent exposure laws only refer to the genital area, you will rarely, if ever, see a woman expose her breasts in public. You won’t see a woman, no matter how fed-up, hot or grossly uncomfortable she may be, casually strip off her top and stroll into the local IGA. (In recent days, I’ve seen six men do exactly that).

Why? Because we know that the simple action of making ourselves more comfortable would set an instant target on our backs. Not only of being publicly abused and ridiculed, but also the very serious threat of predatory behaviour; sexual harassment and assault. We know that male aggressors would be given greater licence by police to perpetrate these crimes than we would be to bare our breasts.

Moreover, despite federal laws supporting both men and women’s right to public toplessness, local councils impose their own rules. Topless women are often slapped with vague charges such as being a public nuisance, or committing offensive behaviour.

The double standard, when you sit and think about it for even a second, is incensing.

And with 2024 set to be hotter than the year before, perhaps a public protest of angry, topless women is high time.

Who’s in?

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“I’d never walk at night in high heels,” she told Women’s Agenda. “It’s just something blokes probably don’t understand.”

Madigan, the owner and executive creative director of Campaign Edge, was a panelist on the latest episode of the ABC’s program Q+A, and on her way out of the building, she noticed a man waiting outside for her.

“People often do come up to me, and I always tend to try to be nice to people,” she said.

But this was a man waiting for a woman to be walking on her own, late at night, on a dark, empty street. The man was asking Madigan about a “sweary post” she made on X (Twitter) and whether it was “appropriate”. He was also filming her and later posted the video on YouTube.

So I walk out of the ABC and there’s an old guy with a video camera badly hidden in his bag, filming me and he says ‘I’ve been waiting an hour for you, are you the Dee Madigan who told me to fuck off on Twitter?
Me: Probably
Him: Well I think…
Me: Fuck off

— Dee Madigan (@deemadigan) October 16, 2023

The 45-second video, along with the couple of 280-character posts on X, speaks volumes and shines a light on several issues that women, especially high-profile women, face every day for speaking out.

Stalking

Being a victim of stalking is all too common for women. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ (ABS) data from 2021-2022, 2 million women have experienced stalking since the age of 15. This means one in five women have been stalked in their lifetime.

Madigan is aware of just how common it is, especially as a woman in the public eye who often fights back against issues that women experience each day.

“I’m conscious of it, but like most women, you’re conscious of it anyway,” she said.

“And I think this is why women are so tired, because every time you’re out at night you’re always a little bit conscious of what’s happening around you. 

“Men genuinely do not understand what it’s like to be female in a dark street at night with no one around. They just don’t.”

Walking home at night and being on your guard is a shared experience for women, but Madigan said she tries to not let it get the best of her.

“You’re just always aware of what’s around,” she said, “but equally, you can’t let it stop you doing things either.”

Online abuse

Harassment doesn’t just occur in real life. In fact, the frequency of being a victim of harassment is compounded in the online world.

“People will send me DM’s that are horrible. You just kind of get a bit used to it,” Madigan said.

“In real life, they’re not nearly as brave as they are behind the keyboard.”

In March this year, on International Women’s Day, ABC News Breakfast co-host Lisa Millar addressed “obnoxious commentary on Twitter (X)” that she received over what she wore on the show days before.

Millar said the “foul, disgusting, personal abuse” upset her, especially since it was re-published on various news sites across the country.

“I am angry… angry on behalf of myself, and also on behalf of other women, young women who see those stories and see someone like me being violently abused day after day for whatever reason bullies can find,” she said in her statement on air.

Millar and Madigan are not the only women in the public eye who are subject to excessive and dangerous online abuse. A study in the US from 2020 found female Democratic politicians received ten times more abusive comments online than their male counterparts. The researchers reported the attacks targeted at women were based on their physical appearance, as opposed to their political stances.

In Australia, women like TV and radio personality Abbie Chatfield are constantly bombarded with attacks on social media. In 2020, Chatfield shared some of the threatening messages she received following her appearance on The Bachelor.

“You think these accounts are just fake accounts? No. These are people’s parents, daughters, friends,” she wrote in the Instagram post.

“At one point I was scared to be recognised in public, for fear of my safety.”

Some journalists, including award-winning writer and presenter Leigh Sales, do not have an account on X, as a result of extreme online abuse.

Annabel Crabb, political writer and commentator for the ABC, often “switches off” her socials after writing an article that could attract online hate.

“Let’s have a little truth-telling about this week,” she captioned a post on X, attaching a link to her analysis on racism during the Indigenous Voice to Parliament campaigning.

“I wrote this, and as is my practice, I’m switching everything off.”

Double standards

Most of what online attackers write in harassing posts and messages to women involve using atrocious, offensive language.

That’s why it came to a surprise to Dee Madigan on the line of questioning from the man, who allegedly waited for an hour outside the ABC studio.

He was interrogating her on a post she made in response to a post from Bernard Gaynor. In the post on X, Gaynor made horrific comments about how women shouldn’t “get drunk” to avoid a man sexually assaulting her.

Madigan responded to the offensive, inappropriate post, including swear words in her response. 

“Some bloke told me off for swearing about that,” she said, “and that’s how it all sort of started.

“Most of the time, I ignore it. Occasionally, I will fight back.”

But Madigan’s fight back copped criticism for her use of swear words, from the man waiting for her and filming her on Monday night and beyond.

“Dudes (are) more offended by swear words than violence against women. Yeah, we’re kinda used to that,” one person wrote on X in reply to Madigan’s post.

Madigan and other high-profile women receive both private and public messages of hate, filled with profanities and hateful language. 

The price Madigan paid for her response – a post with a few F-bombs – was being stalked, harassed, filmed and attacked online.

The double standards are as clear as day.

The post The price Dee Madigan paid for fighting back against dangerous online attacks appeared first on Women's Agenda.

Forty six groups and individuals have signed an open letter calling for the Albanese government to establish an independent oversight body to address university failures on sexual violence.

“In the six years since the release of the landmark Change the Course report, university leaders have been claiming to have a ‘zero tolerance’ for sexual assault,” the letter states.

“Yet the recent National Student Safety Survey (NSSS) shows continuing shocking rates of sexual assault and harassment in university spaces, and ongoing university failures to provide affected students with adequate avenues for support.”

The letter raises alarm that if nothing changes, it’s estimated at least 14,300 students will be sexually assaulted in university contexts each coming year, according to NSSS figures. 

“Student safety data has made it very clear that universities cannot be trusted to mark their own work in this area,” said Fair Agenda’s Executive Director Renee Carr. “For more than six years we’ve seen countless university press releases about supposed commitments to action and reform in this area; but the reality for students is that many universities are still actively causing harm with their responses to sexual violence.”

President of No Student Left Behind and student at Western Sydney University, Vicky-Rae Reed, said they’ve been hearing from students that little has improved and, for some, the situation has gotten worse.

“We know that students with disabilities are disproportionately impacted by sexual violence, yet they’re still coming up against university reporting systems that aren’t accessible, so many students with disabilities can’t even make their reports let alone get the action they need,” said Reed, adding that gender-divers, male and LGBTQIA students are also still being ignored by universities. 

The open letter calls on the Albanese government to urgently intervene and implement an independent oversight and accountability mechanism with a mandate to address sexual violence at universities. 

The letter’s signatories– such as Fair Agenda, End Rape on Campus Australia and the National Union of Students– have clarified that this independent oversight and accountability must be led by experts in sexual violence who can assess the quality of university responses and prevention programs.

Advocates say the mechanism should have the authority to compel institutional transparency around incidents and responses. It should also be able to implement meaningful sanctions when basic standards aren’t met.

Other signatories who’ve joined the call include current and former students representatives from some of Australia’s largest and most prestigious universities, as well as peak bodies for sexual violence and family violence support services including the National Women’s Safety Alliance, the Australian Women’s Health Network and Women’s Legal Services Australia.

“We can’t expect to improve women’s safety if key institutions like universities are allowed to operate with such impunity,” said the Chair of the Australian Women’s Health Network, Bonney Corbin. “Our governments have agreed to address gender-based violence across all communities – to achieve that, we must end sexual violence inside universities.”

As the Universities Accord to transform Australia’s higher education system is underway, advocates are using this open letter to demand sexual violence be dealt with as a priority issue in this reform. 

Spokesperson for Women’s Legal Services Australia, Yvette Cehtel, explains the urgency of the situation, particularly for young women in universities who are seeking support as a victim-survivor. 

“If someone chooses to pursue criminal charges against the person who raped them, it can take years to get any kind of outcome in the courts,” said Cehtel.

“In the meantime, students who have been sexually assaulted or harassed have some needs that can only be met by their university – whether that’s an extension on an assignment or to have their tutorial time changed so that they don’t have to encounter the person who assaulted them.”

“When universities fail to meet those needs, they exacerbate the harm suffered by students, which impedes their overall recovery.”

Founder of End Rape on Campus, Sharna Bremner added that “Students can’t wait for another report, or another set of recommendations. We need accountability, and we need it now.”

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Can you remember the first time you were harassed in a public space? What comes to mind? Can you remember how old you were, or what you were doing? Perhaps this is not something you have personally experienced, although we know 87% of young Australian women have been harassed in public.

We spoke to 47 adult women and LGBTQ+ people in our recent study on street-based and public harassment about their earliest memories of feeling sexualised, uncomfortable or unsafe on the street. Many mentioned they first experienced street harassment in their school uniforms. We heard variations of the phrase “it happened when I was in my school uniform” repeatedly from participants.

For many, street harassment began or became more frequent when they started wearing a high school uniform. Some participants, however, reflected on experiences from when they were even younger, wearing a primary school uniform.

Studies from the United Kingdom have shown 35% of girls wearing school uniforms have been sexually harassed in public spaces. Despite the importance of schools in the daily lives of young people, and the high rates of street harassment they experience, there’s been surprisingly little attention paid to the harassment of young people in school uniform.

Findings from our new research show school-related harassment is a serious issue that has largely flown under the radar in Australia.

It happens beyond the school gates

We know young people experience sexual, homophobic and transphobic harassment from their peers and even teachers while they’re at school.

But participants also told us about harassment occurring outside their school grounds. This was perpetrated by strangers (usually individual adult men, or groups of adult men), while they were in uniform and, therefore, clearly identifiable as school children.

This took many forms, ranging from catcalling, staring or leering, wolf-whistling, and being followed by men in cars while walking to school, through to public masturbation and men rubbing themselves against victim-survivors (usually while travelling to school on public transport), sexual assault and rape. As one interviewee told us:

walking from high school to home […] that’s where most of the harassment I’ve experienced happened […] As soon as I stopped wearing a school uniform it happened less. So that’s disgusting for a lot of reasons.

As another interviewee shared, these experiences were really scary not just because of what was happening at that moment but because the perpetrator “knows which school you go to” because of the uniform worn.

The ‘sexy schoolgirl’

Why is it that young people – and particularly young women and girls – are so routinely harassed in school uniform? We found harassment of schoolgirls was seen as being culturally sanctioned through the “sexy schoolgirl” trope. As one interviewee noted:

when you go on Google images and search for ‘school boy’ it will come up with a five-year-old boy but then ‘school girl’ it will come up with the sexy school girl costume.

Participants discussed being targeted because they were viewed as vulnerable and (paradoxically) as both sexually innocent and sexualised:

that was part of the allure for them [the perpetrators], the innocence of a schoolgirl, a fearful schoolgirl in that situation, was like hot to them, they were really getting off on it.

Another interviewee told us:

I went from being an innocent child to a child that felt uncomfortable and didn’t know why I was sexualised – and I didn’t understand it because I didn’t understand what sex really was.

Because they were so young, many participants often lacked a framework or language to understand their experiences. For many, these experiences were also so routine they simply formed part of the background hum of everyday life.

It was often not until years after these formative experiences that participants were able to articulate them as sexual harm and reflect on the impacts.

Trying to avoid harassment

Across our interviews, many participants discussed changing the way they presented themselves or changing the routes they took to school. They often focused on changing their own behaviour and made their lives smaller in an attempt to avoid further harassment. For example:

I started walking the long way. I started just going through the main roads, avoiding the back streets, even though it was a longer walk to be extra safe.

In the longer-term, participants commonly described feeling unsafe, hyper-vigilant, and distrustful of men in public spaces.

‘What if there’s a paedophile on the tram?’: school responses

Unfortunately, the view that victim-survivors are responsible for their own harassment was often reinforced by schools if harassment was reported.

Numerous participants told us how they were reminded of school uniform policies (such as mandated length of skirts and dresses) when they went to teachers for help. One participant recounted an experience where her teacher asked:

Why would you wear your skirt like this [short]? Whose attention are you trying to get? […] what if there’s a paedophile when you’re on the tram home from school […] thinking ‘this is the best day of [my] life’.

Others did not seek help from their teachers because of this focus on students’ appearance at school – they felt they would simply be blamed for what happened.

These types of responses teach young people to think street harassment and other forms of gendered violence are their fault. It also tells them their bodies are sites of risk that need to be managed and contained to avoid harassment.

School uniform harassment is not ‘normal’

While schools and school-related contexts were often sites of harm for our participants, schools nonetheless have a vitally important role to play here. Harassment in school uniform should not be seen as a “normal” part of growing up.

There is an urgent need to provide young people with a framework to understand their experiences.

Educational efforts must challenge the idea that harassment must simply be endured. Instead, schools should help young people understand harassment as a form of violence, and offer safe and supportive spaces to talk with peers and adults about their experiences. This should be incorporated into existing sex and relationships education in an age-appropriate way.

Importantly, responses to harassment should never blame or implicate young people themselves. It’s time for outdated practices such as measuring school uniform length to be relegated to the past where they belong.

In the words of one participant, “the length of my skirt is not influencing how much I learn”.

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Findings showed most victims of islamophobia were women (78 per cent) and most perpetrators were men (70 per cent), with two in three women being harassed by male perpetrators. 

The Islamophobia Register Australia’s (‘Register’) flagship research report was released on Tuesday at an event attended by Minister for Multiculturalism Andrew Giles, Minister for Youth Anne Aly, Senator Mehreen Faruqi, Senator Fatima Payman, MP Kylea Tink and MP Sally Sitou.

The report, in partnership with Charles Sturt University and Islamic Science and Research Academy (ISRA), covers the 2020-2021 reporting period and compiles all incident data from the inception of the Register in September 2014 until December 2021, including 930 verified incidents of islamophobia (515 offline and 415 online). 

Since the inception of the Register (2014-15) until the start of the Covid-19 era (2020-21), there’s been a concerning fall in witness reporting of islamophobia which dropped by about half (from 47 per cent to 24 per cent), according to the report. 

Principal Researcher and CSU Associate Professor Dr. Derya Iner says the islamophobic incidents in the report “were mostly committed by men perceived to be from Anglo/European backgrounds and from older cohorts” with the victims being “mostly younger hijabi women from non-White ethnic backgrounds and from vulnerable cohorts, unaccompanied or with children”. 

Dr. Iner says these significant characteristics of islamophobia have been seen repeatedly over the eight years of reported incidents and that incidents in guarded places reached up to 70 per cent in the last reporting period. 

“If we don’t want to keep repeating these numbers in the next 8 years, it is time to ask ourselves ‘what can we do to stop it?’ and ‘How can we dismantle gender, race and age enablers reproducing islamophobia?’”, says Dr. Iner.

Over the 8 year period of the recent report, verbal intimidation was the most common form of abuse (45 per cent) followed by graffiti and vandalism (12 per cent) and discrimination by authorities in official buildings, workplaces, schools (10 per cent), written material (9 per cent), physical assault (8 per cent), multiple incident types in one case (8 per cent), non-verbal intimidation (6 per cent) and other (2 per cent).

In online circumstances, it was found that three quarters (75 per cent) of reporters in the period of 2014- 21 were Muslim. The ratio of non-Muslim reporters dropped significantly (from 35 per cent in 2014-15 to 2 per cent in 2020-21). 

Executive Director of Islamophobia Register Australia Sharara Attai says, “it’s clear from this report that there is an urgent need to activate bystanders, both in the real world and online.”

“What’s also troubling is that this report reinforces the fact that Islamophobia disproportionately affects Muslim women. We need government action to ensure greater safeguards for Muslims in Australia,” she says. 

Deputy Leader of the Australian Greens, Senator Mehreen Faruqi echoes this call for greater government action against islamophobia saying “The extent of racism and hatred that Muslims in Australia face remains deeply concerning.”

“For too long, Muslim women and children have borne the brunt of Islamophobia, often suffering long-term emotional harm.”

Senator Faruqui adds that “the previous Coalition Government fuelled Islamophobia then sat back and did nothing” and that Labor “must commit to concrete responses”. 

The first hijab-wearing Senator in Australia, Senator Fatima Payman labelled the Register’s report “confronting” but says she’s “optimistic this data will help our nation fight against this discrimination”. 

“I encourage anyone who experiences Islamophobia to take a stand and report the incident,” she says.

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The allegations from current and former staff members, revealed in a Buzzfeed investigation, have thrown host Ellen DeGeneres and her senior production team in hot water.

One former employee claimed, “That ‘be kind’ bullshit only happens when the cameras are on”.

Indeed, for someone who has built their multi-million-dollar brand and hit television show on the motto “be kind”, the allegations of the entrenched toxic culture at The Ellen DeGeneres Show bring a different light to chirpy nature of the host herself.

While many of the allegations have been directed towards senior production staff at the show, one former employee said, “If she wants to have her own show and have her name on the show title, she needs to be more involved to see what’s going on.”

“I think the executive producers surround her and tell her, ‘Things are going great, everybody’s happy,’ and she just believes that, but it’s her responsibility to go beyond that.”

According to the report from Buzzfeed, former employees said they were fired after taking medical leave or bereavement days to attend funerals. A black woman who used to work at the show said she experienced frequent racist comments and “microagressions”. She said a senior-level employee had said to her and another woman of colour, “Oh wow, you both have box braids; I hope we don’t get you confused.” 

There have also been allegations of alleged sexual misconduct by senior executive producer Kevin Leman, with several ex-staffers saying he acted inappropriately at staff parties and regularly made sexually explicit comments in the office, normally towards younger, lower level employees.

47 former employees who spoke to BuzzFeed News reported that Ed Galvin, another executive producer, led staff with intimidation and fear on a daily basis.

The Ellen DeGeneres Show has since overhauled its senior production team, with executive producers Ed Glavin, Kevin Leman and co-executive producer Jonathon Norman being removed.

DeGeneres has released an official statement of apology to the staff at the show and has spoken to staff via a video conference.

In the statement, Ellen wrote: “As we’ve grown exponentially, I’ve not been able to stay on top of everything and relied on others to do their jobs as they knew I’d want them done. Clearly some didn’t.”

“That will now change and I’m committed to ensuring this does not happen again.”

Since the investigation from Buzzfeed revealed the experiences of employees, numerous celebrities who have appeared on The Ellen DeGeneres Show and consider themselves personal friends of host, have come forward with messages of support for DeGeneres. None of them have ever been employed by the show.

Her wife, actress Portia de Rossi, Kevin Hart, Katy Perry, Jay Leno, Diane Keaton, Alec Baldwin and Ashton Kutcher are among the big names who have publicly supported her, all of them saying they have only ever had good experiences on the show and with Ellen.

1/2 I know I can’t speak for anyone else’s experience besides my own but I want to acknowledge that I have only ever had positive takeaways from my time with Ellen & on the @theellenshow. I think we all have witnessed the light & continual fight for equality that she has brought

— KATY PERRY (@katyperry) August 4, 2020

I don’t discard a 40-year friendship on hearsay. The Ellen I know has raised over $125 million dollars for charity and has always been a kind and decent person. I fully support her. Jay Leno pic.twitter.com/b3i283YIBk

— Jay Leno (@jayleno) August 4, 2020

In the entertainment business, sometimes people can go too far in pursuit of a creative or commercial goal. Or people who work for you may do so.

Having stated that, @TheEllenShow has always been kind to me.
So…there’s that.

— HABFoundation (@ABFalecbaldwin) August 4, 2020

But as actress Rachel Bloom pointed out, being a celebrity guest and only having good, positive experiences to report is a profoundly different experience to being a junior employee working in production.

For junior and low-level employees, there is an inherent power dynamic at play at a workplace like The Ellen DeGeneres Show. DeGeneres is one of the wealthiest and most influential people in the industry. For similarly powerful celebrities to defend her character does little except undermine the experiences of workers.

Just wanna say that I have both worked behind the scenes of tv shows and been the celebrity guest on them and the two experiences are very different. Having a good time being a guest does not necessarily have anything to do with the experiences of the employees.

— Rachel Bloom (@Racheldoesstuff) August 4, 2020

Celebrities with their Ellen posts right now sound like “I can’t speak for Cinderella but I’ve only had wonderful experiences at the dinner parties hosted by her stepmother and stepsisters at the castle. Sending them so much love right now!”

— Christian Zamora (@Christian_Zamo) August 4, 2020

The show is reportedly under investigation by WarnerMedia, with staff receiving a memo that an employee relations group and a third party group have been engaged to investigate the allegations.

In Australia, The Ellen show has been pulled from its slot on the Nine Network, to be replaced by re-runs of Desperate Housewives.

“We are resting Ellen repeats on Nine and have replaced with Desperate Housewives,” a from the network statement read.

Repeat episodes will continue to air on 9Gem, one of the Nine Network’s other channels.

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Almost all (97%) school principals in Australia work overtime. More than 70% work more than 56 hours per week during school terms and 25 hours each week of the holidays.

The latest yearly report on the well-being of Australian principals provides a sobering picture of harassment, violence, burnout and mental-health concerns. More than 2,000 Australian principals participated in the 2019 survey.

More than 40% of principals reported being a victim of physical violence in 2019 compared to 27.3% in 2011. Threats of violence toward principals have increased from 37.8% in 2011 to 51.0% in 2019.

Parents are the main offenders of threats, bullying, sexual harassment, conflicts and gossip. Students were responsible for most actual instances of physical violence. These included hitting principals during a meltdown or throwing broken glass.

Read more: Teachers are more depressed and anxious than the average Australian

School principals recognise, promote and build the leadership capacity of staff, students, parents and the community. Research shows school principals play a role in teachers’ well-being. And teachers’ well-being affects student achievement and motivation.

This means improving school principals’ well-being isn’t only important in its own right. It’s important for the school’s other staff and students.

What the survey found

Most school principals told us they had been subjected to two or more types of offensive behaviour in the last 12 months.

Over the last nine years of our surveys, a growing percentage of school principals have been exposed to behaviours such as bullying, physical violence, gossip and slander, sexual harassment, threats of violence and verbal harassment.

Principals told us of parents sometimes threatening them with lawyers or going on social media to downgrade the school. Principals reported being micromanaged by the department, being forced out of school and humiliated by regional management.

In the 2019 survey, principals said they experienced levels of burnout, stress and sleep difficulties that were all at least 1.6 times higher than the general population.

Since our first principal well-being survey in 2011, principals have consistently reported “the sheer quantity of work” and “the lack of time to focus on teaching and learning” as their main sources of stress.

Read more: Bullying, threats and violence: report details the difficult job of a principal

The increasing demands for accountability also cause distress because principals simply do not have enough time to do the “real work” of school leadership – facilitating teaching and learning.

One WA primary school principal told us

The role of Principal is becoming increasingly complex and difficult. Some of this is due to the unrealistic expectations from parents and their lack of support for the school in regard to behaviour management. I feel we have become a toothless tiger. The department of education also places unrealistic expectations on schools with many mandated administrative tasks that take us away from our core business of leading a school.

In 2019, principals reported the mental health issues of students as their third highest source of stress. They reported job demands, on average, to be 1.6 times higher than for people in the general population.

A secondary school principal from NSW said:

I have significant concerns with the prevalence of students, staff and parents that are now presenting with a myriad of mental health conditions within the workplace. The management of these conditions/situations constitutes a significant part of my job on a daily basis. It takes a large toll on my own mental health and well-being, and that of my wife who has to listen to the vast amount of war stories on a daily basis.

What needs to be done

In 2017, Victoria was the first state to implement substantial changes to work practices consistent with the recommendations from our survey. The government allocated A$4 million to conduct principal health checks and implement well-being strategies which included a principal mentoring program, an early intervention program and free health consultations. It also appointed a principal health and well-being expert to the Victorian Department of Education and Training.

Victoria now has the lowest number of principal reports of self-harm, poor quality of life and poor occupational health. Victorian principals also reported the highest level of job satisfaction.

The Northern Territory also implemented substantial, evidence-based changes to their system in 2019 in line with our recommendations. And Queensland will put in place similar solutions this year.

Both the NT and Queensland’s measures emerged from an extensive top to bottom review of their education systems. Our survey shows the Northern Territory now reports the equal lowest number of serious ill-health indicators along with Victoria, and the second highest level of job satisfaction in the country.

We anticipate Queensland’s new workplace changes will also show marked improvement in subsequent surveys.

Read more: Being able to adapt in the classroom improves teachers’ well-being

These results suggest systematic approaches to the challenges of education make the greatest difference to school principals, and not approaches which seek to address challenges of any specific school setting.

The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated the massive amount of responsibility and strain endured by Australia’s educational staff. Principals were responsible for keeping schools open (or in the case of private schools, making the call to close them). They were also responsible for everybody adhering to social distancing guidelines to keep staff and students safe.

And they had to oversee the implementation of a system (online and in hard copy) to provide home-schooled students with adequate learning materials to keep up with the curriculum.

We believe the COVID-19 pandemic could herald a positive shift in community attitudes toward school leaders. It seems, the national school shutdown from COVID-19 restrictions have reminded communities of the vital role school leaders play.

Theresa Dicke, Senior Research Fellow, Australian Catholic University; Geetanjali Basarkod, Research Manager, Australian Catholic University; Herb Marsh, Distinguished Professor of educational psychology, Australian Catholic University; Jiesi Guo, Senior Research Fellow, Australian Catholic University; Philip D. Parker, Professor, Australian Catholic University, and Philip Riley, Professor of Educational Leadership, Deakin University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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A decade later, in 2017, it was catapulted into the global lexicon after Harvey Weinstein was exposed as a long-time sexual predator.

Burke lit the first ‘me too’ match but it didn’t spread like wildfire until actress Alyssa Milano took to Twitter.

“If you’ve been sexually harassed or assaulted write ‘me too’ as a reply to this tweet,” she posted at midday on the 16th of October 2017.

If you’ve been sexually harassed or assaulted write ‘me too’ as a reply to this tweet. pic.twitter.com/k2oeCiUf9n

— Alyssa Milano (@Alyssa_Milano) October 15, 2017

Viral is inadequate to describe the response. #MeToo had been used more than 200,000 times by the end of the day, and more than half a million times by the end of the next day. On Facebook, the hashtag was used by more than 4.7 million people in 12 million posts in 24 hours.

For a long time Burke – who coined the phrase and employed it to raise awareness of sexual violence – wasn’t even mentioned. Plenty assumed it was Milano’s brainchild.

Even now, in the media, Burke is often reduced to merely the “founder” of #MeToo when in reality she is a visionary leader – the original carrier – of this global movement. She believes the fact that’s overlooked says “something for how resistant people are to black female leaders”.

October marks the 2nd anniversary of the #MeToo hashtag & the start of a monumental shift. It rose awareness, but we demand more. I wrote this op-ed for @TIME in light of the upcoming #DemDebate. We are voting for accountability in 2020. #MeTooVoter https://t.co/yV8wpKoVd1

— Tarana (@TaranaBurke) October 10, 2019

Burke has spent her career fighting for women’s rights: it wasn’t by chance that she lay the foundations for an unprecedented global conversation about the prevalence of sexual violence. But what #MeToo has come to represent doesn’t accord entirely with Burke’s original intentions.

“The words don’t mean anything different now to 2006,” Burke, who is in Australia for the Sydney Peace Prize, tells Women’s Agenda. “It was about an exchange of empathy between survivors: a declaration that we are here. That we are visible. That’s exactly what the hashtag did – it was an acknowledgement that we’re here in numbers. It was a way for people to find a community.”

But the way it took hold in the aftermath of Harvey Weinstein’s public demise meant it became shorthand, in a sense, for a particular kind of sexual harassment: that which occurs in a workplace.

“I don’t feel the movement has been co-opted as much as it’s been expanded to a broader conversation about sexual violence,” Burke says. “My focus has largely been on sexual violence as it occurs outside of the workplace. Now there is a larger conversation about harassment that happens in the workplace. That’s not objectionable but it’s a singular focus on one area of violence where the most privileged women exist.”
How does Burke reflect on the fact the primary focus – particularly in the media – has been fixed on white women?

“That became the early frame but I don’t think the women themselves did so with the intention of co-opting the movement,” she says. “They did so with the intention of exposing and talking about their violence they experienced.”

“What I’ve seen in the last two years is people from across the world trying to work together around this issue but what I have also seen is mainstream media defaulting to continuing to talk about the same people they always have: white cis men and women.”

Burke says women aren’t necessarily to blame for the media’s fixation on them but ought to be mindful of it.

“I do think women with any form of privilege have to use it to amplify the voices of those who are pushed to the margins. We’ve seen that happen to some degree and we’ve also seen it not happen.”

On Wednesday it was reported that a version of an ABC documentary series presented by Tracey Spicer, the co-recipient of the Sydney Peace Prize with Burke, had identified survivors of sexual assault and abuse without their consent. At the National Press Club on Wednesday Spicer publicly apologised for the egregious breach. “To those who trusted me … I am truly sorry,” she said.

It came after a recent BuzzFeed Australia investigation into the management and operation of NOW Australia which Tracey Spicer spearheaded. At the Press Club Spicer also apologised to survivors who had made disclosures and didn’t hear back. She described her response as “wholly inadequate”.

What are Burke’s reflections on this?

“My understanding is that Tracey, like so many other people right around the world, seized the moment to talk about sexual violence and harassment in their industry,” Burke says. “This has happened in India, in Canada and a lot of these people aren’t necessarily activists or practitioners. As a journalist I can see why she wanted to take hold of this and tell the story.”

“If you talk to Tracey Spicer I don’t think she intended to lead a movement and be the face [of it all ] – but she is – and that comes with some form of an arrow.”

Burke says what happens next is critical.

“I think she’s acknowledged her shortcomings and missteps – which is all you can really ask – and see what happens moving forward. I think moving forward she’ll be more conscious… and have an expanded and broader analysis of the breadth of problem in Australia and use her influence to do something about it.”

How should privileged white women in positions of power exercise any influence they wield?

“When you have privilege and you are in a position of power – a lot of times people defer to you. The best use of privilege I’ve seen is when they use it to amplify the voices of others. Sometimes that means passing the microphone over and acknowledging you shouldn’t be the person with the mic. It might mean putting people in positions to tell their own stories. That’s some of the most effective use of privilege I’ve seen.”

Being open to considering the ways in which we take up space is necessary but Burke cautions against becoming paralysed by guilt.

“It’s one thing to acknowledge the privilege you have without being totally mired in guilt for something you can’t change. But a healthy amount of consciousness and self-reflection is really useful. Asking ‘Am I the right person?’ or ‘Is there someone else who should be here?’ are simple questions that help navigate privilege.”

When it comes to the subject of where to next for #MeToo Burke is both hopeful and realistic.

“Uttering the phrase ‘Me too’ really is just the beginning of the work,” Burke says. “It’s not the whole movement itself. It’s what galvanises us and collects and gives community.”

What happens after a person says ‘Me Too’ is fundamental.

“Our first job as a movement is to make sure people have what they need to heal. That’s not happening in large enough numbers,” Burke says. “Before we get policies, legislation and procedures and narrative change, we have to keep the focus on the people who said ‘Me too’ and what they need.”

Healing is what they need and there is no single solution.

“So many of the people [who said ‘me too’] have no hope of accountability for their perpetrators – that isn’t possible for so many. We have to introduce them to whatever resources are available. We need to present alternative pathways for how their healing journey might look.”

“Beyond that, for the people who said it, who received it and for everyone who just want to live in a better world, we need to move the axis,” Burke says. “Whether the action is a commitment to change behaviour, get into the fight, join the front line, people have to commit to some kind of action. Telling stories in itself isn’t going to bring about change.”

Tarana Burke is in Australia to receive the 2019 Sydney Peace prize on behalf of the #MeToo movement. The prize will be awarded at the City of Sydney peace prize lecture on 14 November, and Tarana Burke spoke at the National Press Club on 13 November and will speak at the Collingwood Town Hall in Melbourne on 18 November.

The post Tarana Burke: What happens after a person says ‘me too’ is fundamental appeared first on Women's Agenda.

On Wednesday a defiant Setka faced the press and said he would not resign from the party, insisting his comments were taken out of context. Some attendees from the meeting where the comments were reported to have been made have publicly confirmed his account.

Embattled union boss #JohnSetka has appeared with his wife Emma Walters to fight calls for him to quit over reported comments on #RosieBatty. He blames “false accusations.” She says “the political war against my husband must stop.” pic.twitter.com/RSL8c8KOg6

— Hugh Riminton (@hughriminton) June 12, 2019

But the fact remains that Setka is facing criminal charges, which his lawyer said he will plead guilty to later in June, for harassing a woman last year, and for persistently breaching a court order, over offending earlier this year.

These are not trivial matters and yet Setka was adamant on Wednesday that he will remain the Victorian secretary of the Construction, Forestry, Maritime, Mining and Energy Union.

“I’ve been elected by the union members. They are my bosses: If they want me to leave I will step down tomorrow,” he told The New Daily.  “But I am not going stand down over innuendo and lies people have made up. This is dirty ALP politics.”

Exclusive: "This is dirty ALP politics. I’ve got the utmost respect for Rosie Batty." CFMEU leader John Setka breaks his silence, as Anthony Albanese moves to expel him from the Labor Party. @samanthamaiden #auspol https://t.co/vIsq9Wk0jA

— The New Daily (@TheNewDailyAu) June 11, 2019

Even after it was confirmed that Setka would plead guilty to criminal charges his position in the Labor party was not considered untenable.  It was only reports of his alleged remarks about Rosie Batty that propelled Anthony Albanese to call for his expulsion.

And while there is something deeply, deeply, disturbing about disparaging the work of Rosie Batty, is there not something also disturbing about harassing a woman? About breaching a court order?

“I've been the leader of the Labor Party for less than two weeks Leigh, so I don't think anyone can say that I haven't been decisive on this issue.” – Opposition Leader @AlboMP on his move to expel union boss John Setka from the ALP. #abc730 #auspol pic.twitter.com/GK0Jcy48yW

— abc730 (@abc730) June 11, 2019

Even if Setka’s words were misconstrued about Rosie Batty, as he insists, are the charges laid by police, that he has said he will plead guilty to, misconstrued too?

It’s hard to reconcile that being disparaging towards an anti-violence campaigner is totally inconsistent with the ALP’s values, but pleading guilty to harassing a woman isn’t?

Anthony Albanese has only been Labor’s leader for two weeks but the party is more than just one person. And the charges against John Setka are not just two weeks old. A line could have been drawn earlier.

The post Weren’t the criminal charges John Setka’s pleading guilty to ‘inconsistent’ with Labor’s values? appeared first on Women's Agenda.

Sydney was noticeably quieter than usual, presumably because many took the opportunity to flee the city and enjoy the long weekend away. We didn’t.

We stayed local and enjoyed having very little to do.

On Monday morning my three daughters, aged 9, 6 & 3, and I set out for a scoot in our local neighbourhood to get a coffee and milkshakes.

It was a lazy stroll, the girls took turns racing, being the leader, picking flowers. The sun was shining and the streets were dead: it was an idyllic suburban scene.

After we’d stopped at a nearby cafe we were making our way back home when the serenity was interrupted. Rudely.

As we turned off the main road, onto one of the streets back towards our home, a man driving a white car swerved towards us, leaned out the window and screamed “F&*(ING SLUTS!”

There were no other cars on the road and we’d barely seen another person the whole time we were out. It was clear we were the subjects of his verbal abuse.

Why?

It is not the first time I have ever experienced this type of harassment (show me a woman who hasn’t) but it’s the first time that it’s happened to my kids. That it happened in broad daylight, in the middle of suburbia, on a quiet public holiday, without a trigger, shook me.

It possibly shouldn’t have shocked me given how prevalent this behaviour is, but it did.

Even though he immediately sped off, away from us, it felt horribly, disconcerting. I felt unsafe.

Did he know us? 

Why did he say those words?

Why was he so angry?

What do those words mean?

These were the questions my middle child posed and they weren’t questions I couldn’t confidently or accurately answer.

A few minutes after I snapped this shot of a lazy scoot around our neighbourhood, a man swerved his car towards us, leaned out the window and shouted “F%^*ING SLUTS!!!”
pic.twitter.com/lfcXGwow72

— Georgie Dent (@georgiedent) June 10, 2019

I posted something on Twitter about the experience soon after it happened and I was bombarded with kind responses and messages of solidarity.

Sadly this kind of verbal harassment isn’t rare and the vast majority of people who got in touch did so to say they hoped my girls and I were ok. They were sorry this had happened.

But soon enough, of course, the detractors came.

I obviously made it up because I had nothing else to tweet. Only ‘feminists’ would ever concoct such a bogus claim. #ThingsThatDidNotHappen.

Earlier I tweeted about an incident in which a male driver screamed obscenities at myself & my 3 daughters (9, 6 & 3) on a quiet suburban street … believe it or not I didn’t fabricate this because I had/have nothing else to tweet about. pic.twitter.com/IdD5n8gk0H

— Georgie Dent (@georgiedent) June 10, 2019

It’s not the first time I have experienced this. Not being believed. Having my words and intentions misconstrued to fit the grand conspiracy that I hate all men.

It is almost as predictable and disconcerting as being harassed on the street. And yet both remain deeply shocking.

The post The shock of being abused by a stranger on the street appeared first on Women's Agenda.

It began when 7AFL posted a remarkable photo of her, mid flight, in a game that was  removed late on Tuesday because the trolling it attracted on Facebook and Twitter was so vile.

In response to that decision Harris proudly posted the image herself, which was then shared thousands and thousands of times.

Here’s a pic of me at work… think about this before your derogatory comments, animals. pic.twitter.com/68aBVVbTTj

— Tayla Harris (@taylaharriss) March 19, 2019

After trending on various social media platforms and making TV headlines, on Wednesday morning 7AFL apologised for removing the image and reinstated it.

We're sorry. Removing the photo sent the wrong message.

Many of the comments made on the post were reprehensible & we'll work harder to ban trolls from our pages.

Our intention was to highlight @taylaharriss incredible athleticism & we'll continue to celebrate women's footy. pic.twitter.com/p24Ll08LRC

— 7AFL (@7AFL) March 19, 2019

Harris has felt “empowered” by the incredible response to the image and everything it represents. But she is also disturbed.

In a radio interview with RSN Breakfast on Wednesday morning she zeroed in on exactly what is so disconcerting:

“I don’t want to give oxygen to the trolls but there is something on my mind through all of this.

I read the comments. I know I shouldn’t do that but it’s hard. I did so I saw them.

And some of the people who said things… I can see in their profiles they’ve got kids, or daughters, or women in their photos and that’s the stuff I’m worried about.”

"I can see in people's profile pictures and they have women in their photos. What are these people saying behind closed doors?"

Tayla Harris on social media #RSNBreakfastClub pic.twitter.com/PG9pZxK66c

— RSN Breakfast Club (@RSNBreakfast) March 19, 2019

“If these people are saying things like this to someone they don’t know on a public platform, what are they saying behind closed doors? And, what are they doing?
These people need to be called out. By the AFL, yes, but maybe it needs to go further.

Maybe this is the start of domestic violence or maybe it’s the start of abuse. The comments I saw were sexual abuse. It was repulsive and it made me uncomfortable.

Whether it’s the Victorian police or someone else, something needs to happen. They need to be warned. They’re not listening and they’re probably even smiling because we’re talking about it. Something needs to go further.”

Harris is right. Trolling isn’t an activity removed from reality. It’s not peddled by robots. It doesn’t happen in a vacuum. It is propagated by human beings, our fellow citizens, our co-workers, our fellow commuters, our friends, men in the coffee queue.  These are the individuals who are willing not just to write despicable things but to abuse women. To resort to threats of sexual violence. To deride and debase women publicly.

And it has consequences. It is ludicrous to pretend that a person can make the choice to threaten a stranger online in one moment, and in the next be respectful towards the women around them. It is an either or proposition. You either respect women as human beings, full stop, or you don’t.

And if you don’t the problem goes well beyond a phone or a laptop or a social media platform.

Tayla Harris is right: there needs to be consequences for every single person who wrote something vile and abusive under that image.

The post Tayla Harris hits back at trolls: ‘What are these people doing behind closed doors?’ appeared first on Women's Agenda.

This is a variation of a sentence I wheel out from time to time as a parent when I’ve reached the end of my tether. It’s not original but it does the trick.

When the cumulative behaviour on show is so uninspiring, I snap and ask everyone in the household to reflect on their contribution and consider whether they can make better choices when it comes to their conduct.

I’m at that point now but not as a parent. I am at that point as a citizen considering that ‘toxic’ is the word of the year.

Toxic is the word that the kind people at Oxford Dictionary have picked to sum up our collective conduct in 2018 and while it’s disappointing to consider it’s hardly unfair or inaccurate is it?

The Oxford Word of the Year 2018 is… pic.twitter.com/DotlZxxJVe

— Oxford Languages (@OxLanguages) November 14, 2018

The disappointment is crushing.

The Oxford Word of the Year is “a word or expression that is judged to reflect the ethos, mood, or preoccupations of the passing year, and have lasting potential as a term of cultural significance”.

“In 2018, toxic added many strings to its poisoned bow becoming an intoxicating descriptor for the year’s most talked about topics. It is the sheer scope of its application, as found by our research, that made toxic the stand-out choice for the Word of the Year title.”

Toxic masculinity. Toxic politics. Toxic air. Toxic cultures. Toxic waste. Toxic relationships. Toxic chemicals. Toxic everything!

Our data shows that, along with a 45% rise in the number of times it has been looked up on oxforddictionaries.com, over the last year the word toxic has been used in an array of contexts, both in its literal and more metaphorical senses.

Frankly it’s disheartening to ponder just how atrocious some behaviour this year has been which is why I want to pose the question I level at my children, to some of the ‘adults’ in charge.

Could you do better? (Barnaby, Luke, Brett, David, Peter.)

On the odd (ok frequent) occasion I reach my limit I ask my kids to consider whether, perhaps, on reflection, throwing their cereal bowl or refusing to get dressed or pulling their sister’s hair or yelling at their fellow family members, was not the very best they could do.

Despite the initial protests, which vary in severity and duration, in time, they generally come to conclude that there was, in fact, a better course of action available. (Even if they’re dragged, in effect, to that conclusion such is their displeasure at missing out on a tuck-shop order or staying up a bit later or having an extra book at bedtime.)

The point is that even small children are capable of recognising when they could do better. It’s a proposition many ‘adults’ ought to consider when they reflect on 2018 and, somewhat alarmingly, the principles they would do well to follow are almost identical to those I seek to instil in my kids.

Keep your hands to yourselves. Listen. Respect the people around you. Be kind. Use an inside voice.  Treat others how you like being treated.

How much ‘toxicity’ could be avoided in our workplaces, political parties, boardrooms,  parliaments, universities, court rooms, newspapers if these simple principles were followed?

A new year is almost upon us and if we can’t do better? I’m cancelling Christmas.

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