How are women’s voices heard in law reform? - University of 天美传媒鈥� UOW

This research project aims to explore how women’s voices are listened and responded to in institutional law and policy reform processes addressing violence against women. It also aims to develop best-practice guidelines on listening to women in law reform and policy development processes addressing violence against women.

Project overview

Despite the volume of advocacy and reform activity in Australia and internationally, there remains a significant gap in research on how victim-survivors are listened to, and how their voices actually influence law and policy outcomes. This is the first comprehensive study in Australia – and internationally – to investigate listening practices in law reform processes. The project will produce best-practice principles and guidelines for how victim-survivors should be listened to in law and policy reform, with the aim of improving both the experience of participants and the quality of reform outcomes.

The project has several components:

First, it centres Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander victim-survivors' experiences of listening within law reform and policy processes.
Second, it investigates case studies of recent examples of institutional law reform processes (such as the Australian Law Reform Commission’s Justice Responses to Sexual Violence Inquiry and the Australian Human Rights Commission's Speaking From Experience Project).
Third, it explores the use of social media in advocating for law and policy change to better respond to gender-based violence.

This project is funded by an Australian Research Council Discovery Project Grant, and has received approval from the University of 天美传媒 Human Research Ethics Committee (H2025-1536).

Research team

(Lead CI) - University of 天美传媒
- University of 天美传媒
- University of 天美传媒
- University of Technology Sydney
Amanda Morgan – University of 天美传媒

Project components

How are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women's voices listened to in law reform?
How have recent law reform processes listened to women's voices?
How does social media influence listening in law reform contexts?

This component is being led by Amanda Morgan and Aunty Barbara Nicholson in conjunction with the project team.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women have been calling on the government and stakeholders for decades, to listen to women who've experienced violence, and fund Aboriginal Community Controlled organisations to deliver place-based programs to support victims and survivors. During case study one, Wadi Wadi Elder, Aunty Barbara Nicholson, Aboriginal co-lead, Amanda Morgan and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Steering Committee will partner with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Community Controlled organisations to hold yarning circles on country about what listening means and looks like and whether and how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women have been listened to in law and policy reform focused on gender-based violence. Amanda will also interview Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander actors in law and policy reform in this area.

The way that the yarning circles and interviews will be conducted on country will model what deep listening looks like. The information gained through Case Study 1 will form the basis for new knowledge about how women’s voices have been listened and responded to in institutional law and policy. The information gained will also tell us what deep listening should entail. The research team, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Steering Committee and the partnering Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisations and key stakeholders together, aim to use this information to develop Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-led best practice guidelines for how to listen to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women in law and policy reform that law and policy reform actors can apply when listening to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women.

This component is being led by Sarah Ailwood and Jane Wangmann.

We are investigating listening across recent law reform and policy development processes addressing violence against women. We are interested in a range of processes, inquiries and reports, including:

Australian Law Reform Commission .
Australian Human Rights Commission .
Queensland Law Reform Commission .
South Australian .
Commonwealth Parliament .

This component is led by Cassandra Sharp.

Social media has transformed the landscape of how voices reach lawmakers, with campaigns like #March4Justice carrying an emotional and political charge that demanded responsive listening from those in power. This case study evaluates social media as sites of listening in their own right, where communities validate each other's experiences and build a shared narrative, in order to highlight possibilities and obstacles for listening practices.

Participate in the project

We are interested in hearing about people’s experiences in participating in law reform processes that focus on addressing gender-based violence. Gender-based violence includes domestic and family violence, coercive control, sexual violence and sexual harassment.

Your participation might have involved:

being on an advisory committee
writing a submission
completing a survey
giving an oral statement or evidence
being part of a focus group, roundtable, workshop or consultation, or
public participation on social media.

We want to learn about what motivated you to participate in that law reform process, how you experienced that participation, and whether you felt listened to or heard.

Survey

This survey is open to people with lived experience of gender-based violence, and their family and friends, who have participated in a law reform process that seeks to address that harm.

Survey link coming soon.

Interviews

We are also keen to hear from people who have contributed to law reform processes addressing violence against women. If you are interested in meeting with us (in person or online) to talk about your experience contributing to a law reform process, please contact us at listening_project@uow.edu.au

Listening to Lived Experience in Law Reform

This video features two researchers, Associate Professor Sarah Ailwood (UOW) and Associate Professor Jane Wangmann (UTS) discussing their research into listening to the voices of people with lived experience in law reform processes addressing violence against women.

Hi, I'm Sarah Ailwood. I'm an Associate Professor in the School of Law at the University of 天美传媒. This is my colleague Jane Wagmann, Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Technology, Sydney.

We're working together on an Australian Research Council Discovery Project examining how law reform processes listen to women who have experienced gender based violence. By law reform process we mean a parliamentary inquiry or royal Commission or a law reform Commission process which is seeking to understand and address violence against women.

So across Australia, many of you have participated in these types of processes that are looking at violence against women and hoping to improve legal system responses. You might have done this by writing a submission, participating in a consultation or a round table or other form of engagement.

Your insights and lived experience have helped shape major reforms. However, some of you might also feel that everything you had to say wasn't listened to and that change has been too slow. This might be particularly case if you're part of a more marginalised community. We also know that contributing to these processes has taken time, emotional energy and courage.

You've already done important work by sharing what you know. So our research is about exploring what it's actually like to participate in one of these inquiries. How did you contribute? Do you feel that you were listened to and heard? Were your views reflected in the recommendations that they made? How could these processes be improved? In this research, we really want to understand how law reform bodies listen and respond to women's voices and if they don't, how they could do this better.

There are two ways you can be involved in this project. You can complete an online survey, which will take between 15 and 30 minutes. You can also choose to take part in a confidential interview, or you can do both. It's entirely up to you.

So the research project isn't about evaluating you or your submissions. It's about evaluating the system, asking questions about how law reform processes do their work. Do they listen to lived experience well? Do they value some voices more than others?

Your reflections in this research can really help build safer, more accountable, more survivor centred law reform processes for the future. If you'd like to learn more, to complete the survey or consider an interview, please visit our project website. You can find more information or contact us directly. We would really value hearing from you.

Thank you.