FACT SHEET Have our attitudes and understanding improved since 2017? NCAS 2021 findings for Australian states and territories
This resource will assist Australian policymakers and practitioners to see at a glance where attitudes and understanding of violence against women in their jurisdiction have improved since 2017.
This resource translates findings from Attitudes matter: The 2021 National Community Attitudes towards Violence against Women Survey (NCAS), Findings for Australian states and territories by illustrating whether or not a jurisdiction improved between 2017 and 2021 on the various scales that make up the NCAS.
Scales are groups of individual survey questions that measure broader concepts. In a simple “scorecard” format, this resource shows at a glance whether, in 2021, each jurisdiction has improved on:
- The Gendered Violence and Inequality Scale (GVIS), which is an overarching scale used to measure our overall progress regarding Australians’ understanding of violence and rejection of gendered violence and inequality.
- The Understanding of Violence against Women Scale (UVAWS), which measures whether Australians recognise certain behaviours as violence and how well they understand the gendered nature of violence.
- The Attitudes towards Gender Inequality Scale (AGIS), which tells us how strongly Australians reject gender inequality in its different forms.
- The Attitudes towards Violence against Women Scale (AVAWS), which measures how strongly respondents reject problematic attitudes regarding violence against women.
It also looks at a number of subscales that make up the UVAWS, AGIS and AVAWS to provide detail and nuance on different aspects of understanding and attitudes towards violence against women. For example, one subscale relates to recognising domestic violence and another relates to attitudes towards sexism.
By providing a concise overview of the states’ and territories’ progress over time, policymakers can easily identify where improvement has been made, and where more focus should be applied.
Suggested citation
Australia’s National Research Organisation for Women’s Safety. (2023). Have our attitudes and understanding improved since 2017? NCAS 2021 Findings for Australian states and territories [Fact sheet]. ANROWS.