Women's Encounters with Violence : Australian Experiences

While research findings in this volume take an Australian perspective, they extend beyond national boundaries and are pertinent to readers in all societies.

Contributors explore violence against women with disabilities, homeless women and lesbians in addition to culture-specific topics, such as injustices suffered by Australian Aboriginal women. The editors introduce the book with an overview of violence in Australian history, examining how culturally embedded laws and customs have aided the oppression of women. They stress that those involved in strategies for prevention should bear in mind political and social policies that may impede progress.

The issue of violence against women in countries around the world continues to receive increasing public, media, political, and scholarly attention. While research findings in WomenÆs Encounters of Violence in Australia are framed within a specific perspective, they extend beyond national boundaries to provide a critical analysis needed to change political and social policies worldwide. Editors Sandy Cook and Judith Bessant introduce the history of violence in Australia and examine how culturally embedded laws and customs have acted like locks on womenÆs oppression. In addition to culture-specific topics such as the injustices suffered by Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women, the contributors also explore issues that cross cultural boundaries, including violence against women with disabilities, homeless women, and lesbians. Promoting a crucial international context to this pervasive problem, WomenÆs Encounters of Violence in Australia proves an excellent supplemental text for students as well as an accessible and timely resource for a broad range of professionals in counseling, social work, health care, and law and faculty in sociology, public policy, and womenÆs studies.