About this Event

The topic of men's violence against women has been receiving increasing attention in the Australian media, sparking long-overdue discussions about the attitudes that men hold about women and girls. Many of these conversations have magnified the voices and experiences of survivors, and focused on challenging cultural messages that encourage male violence and sexual entitlement, such as the sexualisation of women and girls in the media and laws that do an inadequate job of addressing male violence / coercive control.

One form of male violence that has received considerably less public attention is sex trafficking. Often hidden from public sight, the trafficking of women and children for sexual exploitation is part of a broad continuum of men's sexual violence. Australia is a key destination for the trafficking of women from South-East Asia, which has been found in both licenced and unlicensed brothels throughout the country.

In this interactive event, we will discuss sex trafficking as a form of male violence against women and offer both legislative approaches and grassroots ways we can all help to fight it.

About the Speakers

Dr Natalie Jovanovski is a volunteer with the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women Australia. As a health sociologist, she has studied the ways in which gender socialisation contributes to various health and social justice issues. Her research has focused on the harms of sexually objectifying messages and their role in the normalisation of restrictive eating in women. She has also looked at men's attitudes towards women in the sex industry through their shared stories of sex buying, and their rejections of pornography.

Tegan Larin is the Public Officer of the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women Australia (CATWA). Tegan has extensive experience volunteering for front line non-government organisations in Melbourne, Australia that support women in prostitution and women who have been trafficked. Tegan is currently completing a PhD at Monash University, her research focuses on the sex industry in Victoria, Australia, in particular her research examines illicit massage businesses, prostitution policy and sex trafficking.

Laura McVey is a volunteer with the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women Australia. As a researcher and PhD candidate at RMIT University, her doctoral research is concerned with the ways in which capitalist markets and marketing practices are implicated in the production of violence against women, specifically in the context of the online pornography industry. Laura also has an employment background in the not-for-profit sector, supporting women and children impacted by family violence and sexual assault.

About CATWA

The Coalition Against Trafficking in Women Australia (CATWA) is the Australian branch of CATW International, a Non-Governmental Organisation that works locally and internationally to end all forms of sexual exploitation of women, especially the violence of sex trafficking.

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The session is free to attend - but registration is essential for the Zoom link.
The Zoom link will be sent out 24 hours and 1 hour prior to the event.

If you have any questions, please email leanne@ncjwa.org.au

We look forward to seeing you.

Melinda Jones & the NCJWA Team

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NCJWA is operating on the land of the Bunarong people of the Kulin Nation