Tackling the power of the toxic male

MEN’S “dominant masculinity” will be targeted in the next 10-year national plan for women’s safety as domestic violence groups demand more safe housing for victims.

Australia’s first Women’s Safety Summit has called on governments to “prioritise working with men and boys’’ to stop and prevent violence against women and children.

“Dominant forms of masculinity’’ must be stamped out of homes, schools and workplaces in the next national plan, the summit’s 400 delegates state in a 12-page communique released after the two-day summit this week.

“Addressing men’s violence against women and children must be targeted across all settings, including work, education, public, institutional and other community spaces, as well as at home,’’ it states.

“This must include prevention work addressing dominant forms of masculinity, rigid gender stereotyping and male peer relations based on aggression.’’

The summit – called after ex-federal government staffer Brittany Higgins went public with allegations she was raped in Parliament House in 2019 – ended in acrimony.

Australian of the Year Grace Tame, who was raped by a paedophile teacher, blasted Prime Minister Scott Morrison for using his opening speech to “appropriate’’ women’s private disclosures of sexual assault.

The ensuing storm stole the spotlight from discussion about safe housing, better support for children suffering domestic violence and a crackdown on technological abuse.

Mr Morrison signalled men’s behaviour would be given more attention in the next 10-year national plan for women’s safety.

“I don’t believe we can talk about women’s safety without talking about men, about the way some men think they own women, about the way women are subjected to disrespect, coercion and violence,’’ he said.

The summit called on governments to “stop violence before it starts’’, by helping perpetrators deal with alcohol and drug abuse, or brain injury that can “influence violent behaviours’’.

Noting that gender equality was “key to preventing violence’’, it called for reforms to parental leave and superannuation rules, better income support, childcare access and more support for older women who are most at risk of financial insecurity.