Mar 07, 2019

#SheToo Campaign – 96 Year Old Margarita Launches Campaign Focusing On Listening To Older Women

On International Women’s Day – 96 year old Queensland woman, Margarita Solis, will launch a National Campaign focused on listening to older women.

The Campaign includes Solis’s strategies for listening to older women; a social media campaign for International Women’s Day and a survey about the experiences of listening.

Solis is Australia’s first (and still the only) older woman (65+) to publicly share her story of sexual abuse/assault. Solis featured in a short film about her assault by a service provider and how her life was transformed by those who listened to her.

#SheToo recognises that the #MeToo movement empowered women who already had a degree of empowerment such as social media access, independence from the perpetrator, speech/communication and cognitive abilities.

However, some older women cannot speak up – and many who do report that they are not heard or believed. There is likely to be significant under reporting of sexual abuse – which is not surprising given our failure to listen to older women.

The most recent Report on the Operation of the Aged Care Act noted 547 reports of ‘alleged or suspected unlawful sexual contact’ in residential aged care.

  • Prevalence of sexual abuse/assault of older women by intimate partners and other family members is also likely to be high given that
  • 1 in 5 women have experienced sexual assault
  • Old age is not a protective factor against sexual assault

Many older women were married in the context of marital rape immunity laws The #SheToo Campaign is coordinated by the OPAL Institute (part of the Celebrate Ageing Program) in collaboration with: Senior’s Rights Service in NSW; Aged and Disability AdvocacyAustralia; CASA Forum Victoria and the Gold Coast Centre Against Sexual Violence.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

Vision and Hearing: Managing Age-Related Losses

Currently, I’m at that stage in editing my book about ageing where I’m reviewing what I wrote about managing the increased likelihood of problems with vision and hearing as we get into old age. Blindness was something that preoccupied me for some time as an eight-year-old, when it was finally worked out that the reason... Read More

Remembering Australia’s favourite great-grandma, Daffy

Fans from around the world have taken to social media to remember and pay tribute to Australia’s favourite great-grandmother, Daffy of Daffy’s Wise Words, after her passing on Sunday. Read More

Assisted Dying Passes Upper House in Victoria: One Step Away from Becoming Law

After a marathon meeting that lasted 28 hours, Victoria’s assisted dying bill has passed the Upper House. This puts Victoria on the verge of becoming the first Australian state to legalise voluntary euthanasia, once the bill returns to the Lower House next week for ratification before becoming law. It was passed in the upper house... Read More
Advertisement