Five years after tens of thousands of women marched across Australia demanding action on gendered violence, the country has changed its language and policies. But the most brutal statistic – women killed by current or former partners – has not declined.

Five years ago, tens of thousands of women gathered outside Australia’s Parliament House and across the country in what became the largest mobilisation of women in Australian history.

The March 4 Justice movement grew rapidly, and what unfolded in March 2021 quickly became something far larger than a single protest.

The marches were sparked by the allegation that Brittany Higgins had been raped inside Parliament House. But they were never only about one woman or one incident.

Higgins’ story cracked something open. It exposed what women across the country already knew. Power, silence and violence against women were not confined to private spaces. They existed within the institutions that govern our national life.

Women marched because they were tired of watching powerful men close ranks.

They marched because they were tired of systems that protected perpetrators while women carried the consequences.

They marched because the stories kept coming.

In the weeks leading up to the marches, thousands of women began sharing their experiences of harassment, assault and abuse. The scale of those testimonies made something impossible to deny. The problem was not isolated. It was structural.

For decades, women had been speaking about violence. In 2021, the country was finally forced to........

© Pearls and Irritations