One-third of Australians think women use sexual assault claims as retribution and nearly one in four believe women make allegations because they regret consensual sex, as government-funded research shows a backlash in attitudes to women.

The National Community Attitudes towards Violence against Women Survey, which is held every four years, found 35 per cent of 19,100 respondents agreed “it is common for sexual assault accusations to be used as a way of getting back at men”.

Victim-survivor Louise Edmonds is now working to foster healthy ideas about masculinity.Credit:Nick Moir

Meanwhile, 24 per cent agreed “a lot of times, women who say they were raped had led the man on and then had regrets”.

Australian research has found false allegations of sexual assault are extremely rare and 87 per cent of victim-survivors do not tell police.

The research out on Wednesday by Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety measures changes in attitudes between 2017 and 2021, and shows that while most people reject attitudes condoning violence against women, there was no improvement in rejection of domestic violence.

Improved attitudes to sexual violence and gender inequality were significant, but even so, “some respondents endorsed hostile gendered stereotypes of women as malicious, vengeful and untrustworthy”.

Federal Minister for Women Katy Gallagher said findings in the report were “deeply concerning”.

When a man is highly sexually aroused, he may not even realise that the woman doesn’t want to have sex.

Padma Raman, chief executive of ANROWS, said while the shift in attitudes towards sexual violence was pleasing, the data showed “we still have a long way to go in correcting victim-blaming attitudes and rape myths”.

Despite consent activism by women including Chanel Contos, who campaigned to improve consent education, one in four people believe that when a man is very sexually aroused, “he may not realise that the woman doesn’t want to have sex”.

“These attitudes rationalise men’s aggressive sexual behaviour and disregard the need to gain consent due to the perception that it is biologically difficult for men to regulate their sexual behaviour,” the report said.

It noted “backlash” attitudes had arisen since 2017. In that year, the #MeToo movement went global after revelations about repeated sexual harassment by film producer Harvey Weinstein, who was convicted of rape.

Researchers said evidence of backlash included that 41 per cent of respondents agreed “many women mistakenly interpret innocent remarks as sexist”, exaggerate unequal treatment (35 per cent) and do not fully appreciate what men do for them (30 per cent).

Professor Kate Fitz-Gibbon, a national research leader in violence against women, labelled some attitudes in the report – “combined with the inexplicable rise in popularity of figures such as [viral masculinity influencer] Andrew Tate” – extremely troubling.

Significant mistrust of women was shown by the 37 per cent of respondents who thought those in custody battles “often make up or exaggerate claims of domestic violence to improve their case”, and that many women exaggerate the extent of men’s violence against women (23 per cent).

Nearly a quarter (23 per cent) of respondents thought “a lot of what is called domestic violence is really just a normal reaction to day-to-day stress and frustration” and less than half believe it happens in their suburb.

Emily Maguire, chief executive of Respect Victoria, said it was “incredibly challenging” to see that a number of high-profile domestic violence cases – notably the 2020 murder of Hannah Clarke and her three children by her estranged husband – and prevention education had “barely touched the sides for a lot of people … but it’s a long-term game, and hope is not lost”.

Louise Edmonds, a victim-survivor of sexual abuse as a teen and domestic abuse overseas, said the myth of false allegations being common was damaging.

“When you’ve been violated sexually, you’re also violated physically, spiritually, mentally and emotionally,” said Edmonds, who has given permission to be identified. Edmonds runs a platform to foster healthy relationships and masculinity, in a bid to prevent domestic violence.

“You simply cannot make this up, along with the physical evidence of the assault. Yet I have spoken to many other victims of gender-based violence who have been ridiculed publicly and the assault/ or rape covered up, and the character of the victim assassinated in court.”

Positive findings included that most people (88 per cent) strongly disagreed that a man is less responsible for rape if drunk or drug-affected, and that if a woman claims to have been sexually assaulted but has no physical injuries she shouldn’t be taken too seriously (83 per cent).

Two in five people wrongly believed women and men were equally likely to perpetrate domestic violence, when data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare shows 75 per cent of family violence victims identify the perpetrator as male, compared with 25 per cent reporting them as female.

Some believed, incorrectly, that men and women are equally likely to suffer harm from domestic violence (21 per cent) and fear from it (28 per cent).

Chanel Contos is the founder and chief executive of Teach Us Consent.Credit:Liliana Zaharia

ANROWS researcher Dr Nicole Weeks said attitudes about family violence could be going in the wrong direction due to the large volume of misinformation being circulated.

“We definitely saw that around the Johnny Depp/Amber Heard case: active misinformation in terms of who perpetrates violence and who experiences it,” she said.

Societal drivers that made men more likely to perpetrate domestic violence, including “pressure on them to be sexually aggressive, assertive and in control of relationships, and other rigid gender stereotypes” needed dismantling.

Gallagher said the data showed some progress being made on attitudes to gender equality, but “there are still too many people in Australia with attitudes that entrench inequality and discrimination”.

Federal Minister for Women, Katy Gallagher, says there are still too many people with attitudes that entrench inequality and discrimination.Credit:Rhett Wyman

“This research also once again shows that attitudes towards gender inequality were the strongest significant predictor of attitudes towards violence against women,” Gallagher said.

Fitz-Gibbon, who is director of the Monash Gender and Family Violence Prevention Centre, said excuses to explain failure to gain consent – such as an inability to control sexual urges – must be tackled.

“This data shows us clearly, that despite the national conversation that has been led by advocates such as Chanel Contos and Grace Tame, there is still significant work to be done to educate all Australians on consent,” she said.

Melbourne University sexual violence and harassment researcher, Dr Bianca Fileborn, said it was disappointing to see such little improvement after #MeToo and women’s safety activism, but a backlash could indicate progress.

“We know that the structural drivers of gender-based violence are deeply ingrained … There can also be backlash to successful feminist campaigns, so it is possible that we are seeing this reflected in these findings.”

“There are longstanding ideas about women being untrustworthy, manipulative, driven by revenge, prone to exaggeration … and this continues to inform how some members of the community view women’s accounts of gender-based violence – and we can see this pretty starkly in the survey findings.”

ANROWS was established as an initiative of Australia’s first National Plan to Reduce Violence against Women and their Children 2010–2022 by the federal, state and territory governments.

The National Community Attitudes towards Violence against Women Survey is a representative survey of the community’s understanding of violence against women, established as a key means to monitor progress of the National Plan to End Violence against Women and their Children. Respondents were aged over 16 and contacted by phone.

Support is available from the National Sexual Assault, Domestic Family Violence Counselling Service at 1800RESPECT (1800 737 732).

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