Organisations help in gender-related issues    

GENDER

By THOMAS HUKAHU
IN my last article, I introduced the theme of business and entrepreneurship.
I summarised some of the basic concepts I learned in a short course at the Adelaide Business School.
In this article and a few others in the coming weeks, I will share some of the things I learned in a study tour called the Exploring Women in Business and Entrepreneurship Study Tour.
The tour was organised by Australia Awards and the participants were students from Cambodia and Papua New Guinea, those who were studying at the Flinders University and The University of Adelaide.
The April 15-18 tour took us down south to Fleurieu Peninsula where we visited different organisations and initiatives that either supported women or were started by women.
Talks about gender-related issues
We started our tour in the evening of April 15 at the Flinders University city campus.
We had an introduction session, 14 students altogether with a tour leader and her assistants.
In our first session we listened to a panel of female speakers who talked to us about the kind of work that they were doing here in Adelaide and South Australia.
They were specialists in their own field and host Dr Jean Murray, the chair in that meeting, introduced each of the speakers. They were:

1. Dr Anuradha Mundkur (Women, Peace and Security Network)
2. Dr Sanjugta Vas Dev (A/Director, SA Office for Women)
3. Leesa Chesser (Chooks SA and Hen House)
4. Maddie Sarre (Working Women’s Centre)

I learned that even though women in Australia (and South Australia) have more organisations to support them, there is still more to be done since the system is not fair to them.
Often when they are forced to leave a relationship, they face more challenges than their men. For example, women will have less money in their superannuation funds due to working for less number of days than men and that can be because of them taking maternity leaves.
Women are also often cheated by their bosses who pay them less than what is rightfully due them.
Some interesting information was presented, like economic inequality was often not recognised by most people.
In her talk, Sarre said: “Economic inequality means that women are not just money poor but also time poor. Women have to work more (than men) to get the same amount of money. And often women have to do a lot more unpaid work at home, looking after family members, (and) looking after children. Childcare is expensive …”
What Sarre is saying is that often women are engaged at home to take care of children which when done by other non-relatives is paid for, and that is something that most people do not realise.
Vas Dev informed us about the services that the state office was offering to people living here.
Mundkar spoke to us about the legislation and policies that her office was working on to improve the lives of women.
Chesser told us about Chooks, an organisation that they started to empower women who had business plans in mind. As a former state politician, she had a lot of experience to offer women and better assist them.
From the talks, I realised that often women who are worst affected in a relationship are the illiterate or semi-literate. Such people cannot get a job because they lack basic skills.
There was the feeling too that the women must fight more for better conditions and be allowed to be on the same level as men in industry or the corporate hierarchy.
As part of the audience, I made a point at the end of the session that the fight for gender equity is not a fight for females only but for all people who believe in the need for systems to be fair and just to everyone.
I said: “If my nephew or niece wants to be a CEO of a firm, I must support both of them, not just the nephew. That shows my belief in being just and fair, regardless of our prejudices and stereotyping that is gender-related.”
I think everyone agreed with what I said.
I also had a good conversation with Chesser after her session because I was interested in her other topic which was about women’s superannuation funds and how many women need help to make the best of what they have.
She said something about the need to help women use their superfunds to buy a home, something that is important.
Unlike men, women with the small amount of money in their superfunds cannot easily purchase their own homes.
Meeting another group at Goolwa
After our evening meeting in the city, we had dinner and got on our tour bus and travelled down the highway to the coastal town of Victor Harbour, in Fleurieu Peninsula.
We covered a distance of 83 km in one hour, which I thought was quite fast.
When I discussed that with another student from Flinders, we came to the conclusion that the roads here are so good and it makes road travel less cumbersome.
At Victor Harbor, the females lived in a spacious multi-roomed house and the males had to ride about 5 kilometres down the road to board in another place.
(It was chilly in the night but the days spent there turned out to be sunny and good.)
The next morning, April 16, we all got on the bus and travelled to Goolwa, which
Is 18 km to the east, and also on the coast.
The famous River Murray enters the sea somewhere close to Goolwa.
At Goolwa, we met Deb Robinson of Junction (Reach Out in the Fleurieu) and some other officers there spoke to us about the work they were doing to help women as well as children.
“We do work with women and children,” Robinson said.
“Children, in their own right, are our clients as well. We provide counselling to the children. We make referrals to other services, like a children welfare centre.”
The point about men being victims of gender-based violence was brought up in our discussions and we were informed that the majority of victims in gender-based violence were women, hence the services targeted them more.
A familiar pattern: The cycle of violence
One of the staff members working closely with Robinson spoke to us about the cycle of violence.
It is a way of describing how many relationships start off well but slowly end up in abuse of all kinds and violence.
As explained on a chart, the relationship starts with courting and love and sharing of gifts.
Over time, there is a build-up of tension and that may spark the abuse stage, starting with verbal abuse.
Then it may involve physical abuse and violence and weapons may be used. That is when an explosion occurs.
At this point, some victims walk away.
Others continue to live with an abusive partner who may show remorse, or deny being the guilty one, or even try to make up.
As the relationship looks like it is getting better, then it goes back to more courting, and presenting of gits.
And the cycle takes another round.
It was stated that many victims live in such a cycle but do not realise that they are victims.
It was also mentioned that abuse can take many different forms, not just physical, like:

• Verbal
• Financial (withholding money from victim)
• Isolation (stopping victim from seeing relatives)

Pointers from a brochure
Junction has a good brochure that informs people about how to recognise the signs of family and domestic violence.
It states that domestic and family violence exists in many forms:

1. Emotional: Threats, intimidation, put downs, name calling, jealousy and possessiveness
2. Physical: Hitting, pushing, property damage, harming family pets and object damage
3. Sexual: Demanding sex, unwanted sexual acts and treating women as sexual objects
4. Social: Isolation, alienation from family and friends
5. Financial: Gambling/drug abuse, accruing debts, controlling money, keeping the woman poor even if she does paid work

(When you think about it, we in PNG have a lot of abuse occurring but we do not realise that that is what it is.)
Education about gender-based issues helps people
Something that was stressed by our tour leader and others is that many women (and even children) can be deprived of their rights.
And the sad thing is they accept what is given them, good or bad, as if life had destined them to be in such a space.
The ones who know better seek help and may try to exit such an unsafe space and try to improve their lives.
Those who do not know, or are uneducated, will continue to remain victims without knowing that they are victims in a relationship where the perpetrator is their partner.
Next article: Heading off to Willunga

• Thomas Hukahu is an Australia Awards student in Adelaide, South Australia.