On Saturday 22 October 2022 I sent two emails to an Australian tertiary educational institution regarding financial assistance and support programs that they provided to female students. Here is the first one that I sent:
Would you please confirm that there is no corresponding Men in Engineering scholarship. Assuming that there is not, would you kindly advise why a scholarship is maintained for women as it would seem to be inconsistent with current consensus regarding gender equality. I look forward to hearing back from you in due course.”
On 24 October 2022 they duly replied:
“Dear Mr. X,
QUT strives to create an equal, equitable and diverse teaching and research environment that is fully inclusive for all people. We are not a complete community until all individuals are included and afforded opportunity, regardless of their backgrounds, characteristics, beliefs and circumstances.
The Gender Equity and Diversity in STEMM Action Plan reflects QUT’s long-term commitment to addressing the under-representation of women, trans and gender-diverse people in STEMM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine) disciplines.
Based on this action plan, women in engineering scholarship are committed to support people who identify as a woman, and increase the number of graduating female engineers, which at the moment is only 15% of all of the engineering students. This scholarship will help build a cohort of female future leaders in engineering professions.
However, there are other ongoing scholarships, that students who are not identifying as women are able to apply:
The second email I sent was similar, but was sent to the university’s ‘Discrimination, Diversity and Inclusion Manager’ and focused on one particular page in their website.
(Postscript: 6 January 2023, and thankfully a further response has come to hand … )
“QUT does offer a number of scholarship that are not gender specific including academic, equity and industry-funded (currently being updated for 2023) and they can be found here. QUT – Scholarships
Engineering has a long history of being a male-dominated profession. In several disciplines and areas of practice such as biomedical engineering, much progress has been made on this front. However, in other disciplines such as mechanical engineering the number hasn’t moved much in 30 or more years. I graduated in mechanical engineering in 1993 with only a few other females in my cohort of around 120. And the numbers haven’t improved significantly since then and neither has the aggregate proportion of qualified professional engineers who are female, which is still low at 13% (and the proportion of female engineers who are working in an engineering role is at 11%). (cited Jane MacMaster, FIEAust EngExec CPEng MRAeS Chief Engineer, Engineers Australia Women in engineering | Engineers Australia pp4)
With women severely unrepresented in the engineering work force QUT sets out to increase and support the number of females studying engineering by building a strong support program for students including engineering scholarships.
The scholarship program includes mentoring, flagship Engineers Australia events such as the Women in Engineering Annual Dinner, Young Engineers Australia Executive Breakfasts, GEMS student club events, National Association of Women in Construction events and Alumni panel and industry workshops.
The ongoing women in engineering program connects and showcases the opportunities for women in the engineering industry to help solve local and global challenges. It also encourages young people to consider an engineering career, join and invest in engineering and become the future of engineering.
We offer many funding and engagement opportunities to all of our Engineering students at QUT however to address the gender imbalance in the engineering industry we seek to provide a program that not only supports women but also encourages new entrants into the field of engineering.
I hope this responds to your query and if you are seeking additional research on Women in Engineering please let me know and I will send it through.
Kind regards”
Other posts in this blog that are relevant to this subject:
Queensland’s discrimination law is thirty years old. In May 2021, the Attorney-General asked the Queensland Human Rights Commission to undertake a review of the Anti-Discrimination Act. The review presented a valuable opportunity to make sure the law is keeping up to date with the changing needs of our society.
The Commission was asked to look at whether our anti-discrimination law protects and promotes equality and non-discrimination to the greatest extent possible.
‘One in Three‘ is a diverse group of male and female professionals – academics, researchers, social workers, psychologists, counsellors, lawyers, health promotion workers, trainers and survivor/advocates.
One in Three aims to raise public awareness of the existence and needs of male victims of family violence and abuse; to work with government and non-government services alike to provide assistance to everyone affected by family violence; and to reduce the incidence and impacts of family violence on Australian men, women and children. One in Three believes our society has the capacity to support all victims of family violence, whether male or female, young or old, gay or straight, rich or poor, wherever they live.
In their submission, the One in Three Campaign identifies five different ways in which male victims of family violence are discriminated against in Queensland:
Discrimination in service provision – not available to male victims or female perpetrators
Discrimination in service provision – access allowed, but service provided is harmful or poor
Discrimination in funding
Discrimination within research
Discrimination in public health campaigns.
One in Three’s proposed solution would be to establish a competent triage system based upon severity of violence, risk and need (not sex/gender), that would ensure the limited services available would go to those who need them the most. In order to do this, Section 104 of the Queensland Anti-Discrimination Act 1991 (“The Act”) would require amendments to remove the Example, “It is not unlawful to restrict special accommodation to women who have been victims of domestic violence.”
Here is a link to One in Three’s submission to the Queensland Government (March 2022)
This is a job description that appeared in the Queensland Government’s website for vacant employment positions in December 2021.
You might well ask, ‘are there any equivalent positions available in relation to the prevention of violence against men and boys?’. Dream on!
Principal Program Officer, Justice and Attorney-General, Office for Women and Violence Prevention
The Office for Women and Violence Prevention support women and girls to participate fully in the social, economic and cultural opportunities that Queensland offers; and to achieve their full potential.
We deliver services and supports that victims and their children need to be free of violence, and that ensure perpetrators are held to account for their actions and given opportunity to change their behaviour.
We also drive reform to strengthen community and whole of government responses to gendered violence by changing community attitudes and behaviours, integrating service responses and strengthening justice system responses.
“The team leads and delivers the Investing in Queensland Women grant program, utilizing tools such as Smartygrants and P2i. We lead and support Queensland Government sponsorship agreements with high profile partners such as the Women of the World Festivals and the Australian Women in Music Awards to ensure benefits are delivered for Queensland women and girls. We also liaise with community groups and organisations across Queensland to engage the community on a range of initiatives that promote and protect the rights, interests, leadership and well-being of women and girls.”
Their ABC presented us with a telling headline yesterday (29 April 2021):
‘Queensland’s domestic violence taskforce head wants to hear women’s stories of reporting abuse‘ (Source)
It began with “The head of a Queensland domestic violence and justice taskforce says women’s experiences reporting abuse to police will be looked at as part of the wide-ranging review, more than a week after the horrific deaths of Kelly Wilkinson and Lordy Ramadan”.
Queensland has had one or more DV task forces before, plus several inquiries, but they still need to hear from Queensland women. (Read about those previous inquiries here). Men, just wait, your turn will come … err … later.
The article went on to mention the names and brief details of some women who were killed in DV-related circumstances. No male victims rated a mention.
It then went on to talk about another possible initiative, women-only police stations. Talk about being seen to be doing something … whilst conveniently pandering to the feminist lobby.
This is not even part-way to being ‘good-enough’. It’s a pathetic embarrassment.
Newsflash: At least one in three victims of domestic abuse are male. You can’t possibly arrive at a workable solution to this violence and abuse by ignoring all the facets that don’t sit comfortably well with the prevailing feminist framework. And thus we haven’t. Just continual shrill calls from the feminist lobby for ‘more please sir’. More taxpayer dollars that is.
“I’m proud to be part of a government that values women in leadership roles and strives for gender equality. Minister for Women and the Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence, Shannon Fentiman, joined me as we released a new Queensland Women’s Strategy 2022-27“ (31 March 2022).
‘Hear Her Voice’ – the release of the report of the Women’s Safety and Justice Taskforce (2 December 2021) I have just read the associated tweets from Shannon Fentiman MP, the QLD Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Minister for Women, and Minister for the Prevention of Domestic and Family Violence (refer @ShannonFentiman) and saw no mention whatsoever of either violent/abusive women and/or male victims of domestic violence.
Since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic the mainstream media followed what is by now a well-established script. That script is one involving playing down or ignoring the negative impacts of an issue or situation on men, whilst focusing on the perceived negative impacts on women. It also involves playing up the positive contribution of one gender over the other, with regards to fixing the problem. And if this sometimes involves misrepresentation, exaggeration or even fabrication – as it invariably does – well apparently, so be it.
Australia’s ABC is notable for the extent to which it embraces the leftist/feminist/woke perspective. On 17 March 2020 the ABC published an article about COVID-19 developments in Australia. Perhaps you might like to scroll down to the item about Hamilton Island.
That article mentions “a man diagnosed with coronavirus who recently travelled to Hamilton Island“. Actually it was a woman. Until this tourist travelled there, there were no other reported cases of COVID-19 in the region. The article also mentioned that the “ABC understands the patient recently travelled from New South Wales where they were first tested.“
A regional newspaper article published on 19 March 2020 (pay-wall protected) provides further/clearer details of the incident …
“A woman admitted to Mackay Hospital on Tuesday with coronavirus defied health orders and flew to Hamilton Island after being diagnosed with novel coronavirus in Sydney. It is understood the UK tourist, in her mid-30’s, was found on a Hamilton Island beach after NSW Health authorities alerted their Queensland counterparts”.
“She is understood to have told health authorities she did not understand the directive to self-isolate after testing positive to Covid-19“.
More broadly, domestic violence – or more specifically domestic violence against women – was presented in the media as being the major gender-related issue of the Covid-19 pandemic. I have addressed that topic, or at least an aspect of it, in another post.
Further items related to the impact of Covid-19 on women, and vice versa:
Report no. 4: Impacts of COVID-19 on pregnancy and fertility intentions (July 2021) There’s a swathe of factors causing current low marriage/fertility rates, but let’s nominate a relatively obscure factor like Covid. As long as it doesn’t, in any way, jeopardise the feminist narrative of the moment.
Coronavirus Queensland: Two teens bring virus to state (29 July 2020) It began with the Chief Medical Officer labelling the women’s actions as “very disappointing”, and this was subsequently explained in this article, this article, and this article. And according to media reports their reason for visiting Melbourne included stealing expensive hand bags. Fools.
Coronavirus lockdown prompts spike in women’s porn (10 July 2020) And as for the claim that women’s tastes in porn is not “grubby” like men’s … try searching on google for ‘women like more violent porn’, and you’ll find sources like this one.
Sydney woman turns to OnlyFans after losing cafe job in coronavirus pandemic (2 June 2020) Pro-feminist news.com.au, which run stories like this almost daily, informs us that she’s since made a “huge amount of easy money”. But it’s ok because she “has opted not to do nudity”. Yup, would someone volunteer to confirm that and let me know the outcome?
(You can read about the wit & wisdom of Clementine Ford here)
“It’s a free country” (12 April 2020) & in another incident … “A 20-year-old woman stopped in Port Macquarie gave police her twin sister’s details before police dropped her home with a warning. She refused to go inside, walked off, gave police the finger and was promptly handed a $1000 fine.”
But what’s going on? There appears to have been a change of feminist tactics, as this is the 2nd paper I’ve read today admitting that there had been no boost in the number of calls from DV victims since the commencement of the pandemic.
“At 9.20am yesterday, a woman was walking south along Sharp Street, Cooma, in NSW, when she allegedly stepped in front of another woman and intentionally coughed in her direction.The woman allegedly continued to cough at members of the public as she walked past them, including a woman with a young child.”
Malaysia apologises for telling women not to nag during lockdown (1 April 2020) Many recent articles express sympathy & frustration on behalf of women forced to isolate with men who (allegedly might) beat them, or at least don’t wash more dishes. But sympathise with men who have to put up with nagging or condescending women …. ooh no …that’s some serious #misogyny. Stop it now, you hear?
Tellingly, media outlets like The Guardian reported this as ‘young people’ rather than “young women”. Most of those that didn’t (initially), either amended online copy or removed it within hours of publication.
“Seriously people, this is not the time for judging, finger pointing or shaming. Our world is in uncharted territory, we are all desperately trying to filter through the mass of news we’re consuming eager to decipher what works for us and our families.”
Yes, similar to the way feminists refrain from finger-pointing at, or shaming, men. All the time. Oh please, spare us the tunnel-vision!
In another post I described the feminist-driven non-event that is the Queensland Government’s approach to tackling domestic violence.
Now with an election just weeks away we have seen domestic violence policies released firstly by One Nation and then yesterday by the Liberal National Party.
The Liberal National Party has offered up nothing new or different, proposing:
A public register to “disclose people’s abusive pasts”
Setting up specialist domestic violence courts
Creating a specific domestic violence offence “to better protect victims”, and
A law change to prohibit perpetrators from personally cross examining their victims in civil or criminal matters
Yes, the first dot point is based on Clare’s Law in the UK – which has been found to be costly and ineffective. The Queensland Government recently came to the same conclusion. (Update as of 28 July 2022: This idea has even be resurrected by PM hopeful Liz Truss over in the UK)
Special domestic violence courts were trialed in Western Australia and then discontinued as they were found to be costly and ineffective.
A new offence. Yes, that’s going to make a big difference. Like the new offence recently proposed for strangulation. We don’t already have enough suitable offences in our legal armory? Oh please! But it sounds effective, right? This particular proposal is discussed in this article.
And who needs to confront their accusers in a court of law? An obviously over-rated legal anachronism.
The LNP could have chosen to offer a real alternative to the policies of the Labor Party. Something bold that went ‘back to the drawing board’, challenging the entire feminist/Duluth model mindset. Something that would reap tangible results in terms of reducing domestic violence, in contrast to the ineffective feeding trough for feminist organisations that the taxpayers are currently supporting.
Instead the LNP have opted for the safe path and offered Queensland voter’s nothing of value or substance, and we are all the poorer for it.
See also:
Informed and safe or blamed and at risk? A report regarding a 2024 Monash University study. “Our research suggests domestic violence disclosure schemes may not improve safety for victim-survivors of intimate partner violence”.
In October 2015 the Premier of Queensland, Annastacia Palaszczuk, was quoted as saying that more should be done for male victims of domestic violence. At the time I wondered if this was mere lip service to test the PR waters … or was there actually something tangible in the pipeline? Many people, including myself, earnestly hoped for the latter.
Well, for the sake of accuracy the title of that media release should have included the word ‘female’ before the word ‘victims’. There are many male victims of domestic violence, and yet there was nothing for them in this latest allocation of public funding.
Here are some extracts from that media release:
Two new 72-hour crisis shelters for women and children fleeing domestic violence will be opened in December.
Minister for Communities and Women, Shannon Fentiman and Minister for Housing and Public Works Leeanne Enoch said the two shelters – located in Brisbane and Townsville – will be open and accessible 24 hours a day.
Minister Fentiman announced in February that the two shelters would be established as the first commitment to a recommendation in the Not Now, Not Ever report.
“When women make the brave decision to leave a violent relationship, we must make sure we have the support and services there to help,” Ms Fentiman said.
“These new shelters will give women and children a secure haven where they can feel safe and get the professional support they need to start afresh.
“Shelter staff will link women with specialist services to provide support until they have safe, stable housing in place, as well as connecting them with ongoing support about court, health or other issues.”
“The new services will also provide mobile support to any women still needing to be placed in motels.” …
“One of the unique aspects of these shelters is they will cater for pets, which was a recommendation from the Not Now, Not Ever report, given women in violent situations can also have threats made against their pets.” …
The Department for Housing is also providing $21.8 million in 2015-16 for 56 specialist homelessness services to help women and children escaping domestic violence across Queensland.”
Male victims of domestic violence, who also sometime flee with their children, also need emergency accommodation and support services. As far as I am aware there are no beds in DV refuges available for men in Queensland, only beds in homeless shelters. These two types of facilities are not one and the same.
Minister Fentiman, why have the needs of male victims yet again been ignored despite the Premier being on record as stating that more needs to be done for them?
Will the Minister advise me that support is provided to women because the “overwhelming majority of DV victims are female“? Will she then throw in a sop about an increase in funding for Mensline, a telephone service about which feedback has been appalling?
The sum total of assistance provided by Mensline to men, many themselves victims of violence, is referral to an anger management program. See both this post and this one for background regarding the pronounced gender bias displayed by this and similar ‘help’ lines.
Despite a budget of almost $200 million, as of September 2016 the Palaszczuk Government has yet to provide any tangible targeted support for male victims of domestic violence, nor any program/s to address the needs of female perpetrators of violent or abusive behaviour.
“Ms Fentiman said the Palaszczuk Government has provided $1.1 million to Micah Projects to deliver the Safer Lives Mobile Support Service for 12 months, which has helped more than 800 women and 350 children over the last six months.
“This program has helped to increase the safety of women and children and the accountability of perpetrators,” Ms Fentiman said.
“Importantly, the service has also secured an agreement with Centrelink so women in motels due to domestic and family violence can access crisis payments.”
Micah Projects also receives more than $1.7 million to deliver additional domestic and family violence responses, including a perpetrator program.”
Just how much of this allocation will be directed to supporting male victims of domestic violence Minister? Aside from more sexist and discriminatory screening of male callers to Mensline, any of it ay all?
I was reading an article the other day about the ongoing push to have feminist propaganda introduced into our schools under the guise of ‘respectful relationships’ programs.
The article in question, entitled ‘Bid to teach anti-violence to schoolkids‘ (Jessica Marszalek, Courier-Mail, 30 July 2015) included the following statements:
“She (QLD Minister Shannon Fentiman) said both teenage boys and girls would benefit from positive messages as they began in the dating world.
“We know that there are attitudes with particularly young men who think it is appropriate to pressure a woman for sex,” she said.
So as part of challenging those attitudes, those respectful relationship-type programs really help combat those views held by teenage boys. And for young girls, what they should and shouldn’t put up with.”
“We need to be running programs around respectful relationships but also we need to be running programs about how we view women, so tackling those attitudes is going to be central,” she said.
Queensland is not alone in this regard, with other states considering similar moves. This article concerns such a proposal in New South Wales.
In September 2015 Prime Minister Turnbull announced that “$5 million will also be provided as a longer-term measure to change the attitudes of young people to violence, through expanding the Safer Schools website to include resources for teachers, parents and students on respectful relationships. This will build on the $30 million national campaign (jointly funded by the Commonwealth, states and territories) to change young people’s attitudes to violence, which will commence in early 2016.” (Source)
I don’t have a problem with the concept of ‘respectful relationships’ programs in schools, but I am concerned when the focus is wholly on the need for boys/men to respect girls/women. Yet this is the very type of school program that has been provided and/or vigorously lobbied for by many pro-feminist groups such as the White Ribbon Campaign.
I believe that children should not be put in a position of being alternately shamed or absolved of responsibility due to their gender.
A gender-neutral approach, on the other hand, sends the correct message that people need to respect one another regardless of gender, and that harm can be caused by both males and females alike. (Article on this perspective)
Postscript February 2016: And now, ladies and gentlemen, please put your jazz hands together to welcome the ironically-labelled ‘Safe Schools‘ program. A program which the feminist lobby formulated and then rushed to defend when mainstream Australia voiced their disquiet. This is a progressive social engineering project masquerading as an anti-bullying program.
Sandwell awarded £119k to help tackle violence against women and girls (5 November 2021) “Specific actions that form of part of this programme include delivering a theatre production to raise awareness and challenge sexualised behaviours and culture, and creating boys group sessions tackling issues such as misogyny.”
Flag slur underlines concerns: Turnbull (28 May 2016) What’s the bet that Premier Andrews eventually comes to regret getting into bed with these leftist radfem nutters?
Teens to learn about consent in sex-ed shake-up (14 April 2021) But they will only learn about the dangers of violence against women (This article is/was behind a paywall for the Brisbane Courier-Mail & allied newspapers)
Schoolboy lashes his school for making the boys stand in front of the girls during assembly and ‘apologise’ for rapes committed by their gender’ (30 March 2021) Australia
“This article argues that … rather than promote the affirmation of student identity, the enactment of this directive might, in fact, lead to ethnic division. Second, attempts to recognise and affirm identity have led to the displacement of school subject knowledge in classroom programmes. These unintended outcomes are not only unacknowledged, but they continue to disadvantage the community the identity directive was intended to address.”
It is not enough for schools to address sexism after the scandal, by Dana Affleck (29 July 2016) Ordinary men are the enemy, not (just) bad men. Meanwhile no mention of female teachers having sex with students, or girls bullying, harassing or objectifying boys.
We all wear the White Ribbon (April 2016) Video. Australia. Completely and utterly one-sided … men hurt women/men must respect women
University defends research used as basis for Same Sex program (5 April 2016) I find the readers comments more persuasive that the entreaties of the Deputy Vice Chancellor. Only good research gets through the rigourous vetting process? Yup, how about the research project mentioned in this post? Or the ones mentioned here? This post is worth a read too
Principal Corrine McMillan said she was proud of her students, who will this year mark White Ribbon Day. “Students will present a declaration to make a stand against domestic violence,” she said. “I’m proud to see the students – particularly the male population – live up to the challenge.”
Do these girls represent the next generation of Australian women? Products of PC/feminist-corrupted education system … amoral narcissists with an abundance of entitlement and little respect for themselves, let alone men/boys?
Elsewhere in this blog you might also be interested in:
My submission to the Queensland Premier’s Taskforce inquiry can be found here, and my response to the Taskforce’s subsequent report can be found here.
There was no formal public review process for considering feedback in relation to the final report and the Task Force Secretariat has been disbanded. As far I am aware the report’s recommendations were simply handed on to the Premier and the relevant committee for further consideration and subsequent implementation (in full or part).
That being the case I pressed both the Premier, and the Minister for Communities, Women and Youth, Minister for Child Safety, for a response to my response to the report. I also passed on a copy of my feedback to each member of the Committee, and the Committee Secretariat.
I have today (7 May 2015) just received the first response to my enquiries:
“Thank you for your email regarding the ‘Not Now, Not Ever: Putting an end to domestic and family violence in Queensland’ report, produced by the Special Taskforce on Domestic and Family Violence. The Honourable Shannon Fentiman MP, Minister for Communities, Women and Youth, Minister for Child Safety and Minister for Multicultural Affairs, has asked me to respond to you on her behalf.
I appreciate your concern for men who have experienced domestic and family violence. No-one deserves to live in fear of their partner or ex-partner. There can however, be no doubt that the overwhelming majority of domestic violence is perpetrated by men against women. I acknowledge your point about the importance of reducing the levels of violence in the wider community, and addressing domestic and family violence is a significant part of that effort. The Queensland Government takes the issue of domestic and family violence very seriously, and is giving careful consideration to the recommendations in the Taskforce Report, and to the evidence supporting the findings. Delivering responses that are evidence-based is important, and there is a growing body of knowledge around how we can improve responses to this critical issue that claims so many lives across the country.
Sustainable responses to domestic and family violence require government agencies to work together with the broader community to create change, support communities to speak out against violence in the home, and to assist those affected, whether male or female.
The department funds a range of services for women, men and children affected by domestic and family violence. These services include Mensline, a statewide telephone counselling ad referral service offering specialist support for men on a range of issues, including domestic and family violence.
Thank you again for sharing your perspective on this issue. If you require any further information or assistance in relation to this matter, please contact Ms Sue Coxon, Manager, Violence Prevention Team, Department of Communities, Child Safety and Disability Services on 3006 8832.
Yours sincerely
Cynthia Kennedy, Chief of Staff Office of the Minister for Communities, Women and Youth”
Firstly, a few words about Quentin Bryce. Quentin is a former Governor-General who recently chaired a state Taskforce into Family Violence the report for which was released in February 2015 (see related blog posts here and here).
Quentin deserves our thanks for performing that role without sticking out her hand for the sort of generous compensation demanded by other prominent talking heads of the Australian Domestic Violence Industry. Quentin was ill-advised, however, to issue statements during the course of the Inquiry that were pre-emptive and prejudicial, and which clearly signalled her own personal anti-male and pro-feminist agenda (example1, example2).
In the article linked above Quentin reiterates a key element of the feminist narrative as it is applied to the issue of domestic violence, that:
“Domestic and family violence is caused by unequal distribution of power and resources between men and women, it’s about the rigid gender roles and stereotypes that characterise our society, and the culture and the attitudes that support violence against women”
Domestic violence does indeed involve an unequal distribution of power, but where feminists get it wrong is that the man need not be the partner wielding the power. The feminist perspective also ignores the reality of domestic violence affecting same-sex couples.
Feminists cling to this notion however because it dovetails with a theoretical framework that they rely upon so heavily, known as the Duluth model.
According to the Duluth Model, “women and children are vulnerable to violence because of their unequal social, economic, and political status in society.”The program’s philosophy is intended to help batterers work to change their attitudes and personal behavior so they would learn to be nonviolent in any relationship. Its philosophy is illustrated by the “Power and Control Wheel,” a graphic typically displayed as a poster in participating locations. (Source)
What galls me most, however, is the mind-numbing hypocrisy of feminists asserting that the application of “rigid gender roles and stereotypes” promotes domestic violence, whilst their ongoing portrayal of men as perpetual perpetrators relies upon applying those self-same roles and stereotypes. Cognitive dissonance anyone?
