Policy Impact: Changing a Bad Law
An enduring crusader against domestic violence, Professor Anne Summers was awarded a Paul Ramsay Fellowship to study the impact of domestic violence on single mothers and their children. What she found is the stark choice facing many Australian women: do they stay and risk the violence continuing or even escalating or do they leave and face the high probability of a life of “policy-induced poverty.”
Launched in July 2022, The Choice report used never-before published data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics to reveal shocking evidence of the financial hardships Australian women face when they escape domestic and family violence.
A startling finding was that women who became single parents after escaping violent relationships were being driven into poverty after their Parental Payment Single (PPS) allowance was cut off once their children turned eight years old. Through her UTS research, Professor Summers helped lead the fight to change this law so that single parents can now continue to receive their PPS up until their child’s fourteenth birthday.
Selected Links
Research impact: How to change a bad law
Violence or poverty: A dire choice for many Australian women
Recording: How do you change a bad law?
The Impact Ahead: Protection from Domestic Violence
Based at UTS Business School, Anne continues to focus on the pervasive impact of domestic and family violence in Australia, its broader economic implications and inequalities, and what government, policymakers and business can do to address this major societal issue.
Supported by the Paul Ramsay Foundation, Professor Summers’ current program of research is investigating the impact of domestic violence on women’s employment, including why women exposed to domestic violence are shown to have a lower participation rate in the labour force, and how employment may reduce, or even prevent women’s exposure to domestic violence.
In addition, to measure the extent of violence in all its forms and in particular the characteristics of the perpetrators of such violence, Anne Summers’ program is undertaking the development of a new national longitudinal study to obtain key data on relevant social issues related to domestic violence.
This research will uncover data on modern forms of violence, such as technology facilitated abuse, coercive control and financial abuse — exposing to policy makers the changing face of the violence, the perpetrators, and the impact on women and children.
Armed with innovative data and research findings, as well as a vast network of collaborators from government to community, Anne Summers’ work will enable the next generation of advocacy for women and children, influencing policies that will help reduce and eventually eliminate domestic and family violence.
Selected Links
Understanding the broad social and economic impacts of domestic and family violence in Australia
The impacts of domestic and family violence: Our research projects
Our most recent report
The Cost: of domestic violence for women’s employment and education
The data we use in this report enables us, for the first time, to quantify the economic impact of domestic violence on Australian women. We show that despite the significant growth in women’s employment and education in recent decades, domestic violence continues to have a large and ongoing negative impact on women’s ability to participate in the workplace and higher education.
This report, launched in February 2025, sets out in detail how large numbers of women have not attained a degree, have left the labour force, have reduced their working hours, or have taken time off work– all because of domestic violence.
Partnerships are critical to our programs. Contact the team to find out more:
| Professor Anne Summers AOProfessor |
| Sarah AngusSenior Advancement Manager, Trust And Foundation Philanthropy |
This project is proudly supported by the Paul Ramsay Foundation.
