Dr Lisa Wheildon

Monash Sustainable Development Institute

The Role of Survivors in Driving Policy Change on Gender-based Violence

Tell us about your research

My research looks at the role of survivors of gender-based violence in developing public policy and the most effective mechanisms for engaging them. I adopt a feminist qualitative social science research approach to address this issue by exploring individual, institutional and socio-political perspectives on survivors and public policy reform.

How is your research creating real-world impact?

Policymakers and survivors are using my research to improve existing programs and develop new ones. I have advised the Queensland Government and Greater Manchester Combined Authority in the UK to inform their considerations regarding effective mechanisms for engaging survivors. I was invited to discuss diverse survivor experiences of family violence and breaking stereotypes at a Victorian Government Forum, ‘More than our story: action, wisdom and change’ in April 2022. I provided advice that led to the establishment of the Independent Collective of Survivors (ICOS), which aims to enable and empower domestic, family and sexual violence victim survivors’ use of their diverse lived expertise to prevent and reduce gendered violence.

What outcomes do you hope will come from your research in the future?

I hope my research will improve survivors’ engagement in public policy development, thus improving the effectiveness of policies and services and ultimately contributing to eliminating gender-based violence.

Lisa’s research has been featured in Broad Agenda and The Mandarin. She was awarded the Australian PhD Student Paper Award by the Australian and New Zealand Society of Criminology for her article The Batty Effect: Victim-Survivors and Domestic and Family Violence Policy Change in the journal Violence Against Women, and has co-authored several published and soon-to-be-published papers.