Thesis
COERCIVE CONTROL IN FAMILY BUSINESSES IN AUSTRALIA: How employment and family law fail to uphold the human rights of women experiencing intimate partner coercive control in family business workplaces
Masters by Research, Murdoch University
2025
Abstract
‘Domestic Violence is not a hurricane or force of nature that’s difficult for countries to do anything about. It’s people’s choice to abuse, so we can put meaningful barriers in their way, to hinder abusers from making these choices. Why aren’t we doing that?’ Dr Emma Katz1
This research examines how Australian employment and family property law responds to women experiencing coercive control working in family businesses in an unpaid capacity. Coercive control, as defined by Evan Stark, is a violation of women’s human rights where perpetrators secure male privilege through strategies of domination and control which enforce gender stereotypes. When the perpetrator of intimate partner coercive control has access to a family business, the coercive control can extend from the home to the workplace. Family businesses are common in Australia, representing 67% of all Australian businesses, providing 55% of private sector employment. A 2021 survey on economic abuse in Australia found that 13% of respondents who had experienced intimate partner violence had been made to work in a family business without pay or access to other legal entitlements. International human right’s law protects women’s right to freely choose their own profession, to be paid equally for their work and to receive an effective remedy when their human rights are violated. This research applies an international human rights framework to Australian employment and family property law. Feminist legal research methodologies, combined with doctrinal and content analysis, are used to determine compliance with international human rights treaty obligations. Relevant employment law cases and 48 family law property settlement judgements are analysed using quantitative and qualitative research methods. This analysis concludes that these women are covertly discriminated against in both employment and family law in different ways. The invisibility, lack of legal protection and effective remedy for these women in Australian employment and family property law is highlighted. Potential law reform strategies and further research are suggested. This research has contemporary significance given the potential lethality of coercive control and current lack of consciousness of the circumstances and lack of legal status of women entrapped in both a dangerous relationship and workplace.
Details
- Title
- COERCIVE CONTROL IN FAMILY BUSINESSES IN AUSTRALIA: How employment and family law fail to uphold the human rights of women experiencing intimate partner coercive control in family business workplaces
- Authors/Creators
- Julie L Rosenberg-Russell
- Contributors
- Mary Anne Kenny (Supervisor) - Murdoch University, School of Law and CriminologyNatalie van der Waarden (Supervisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Murdoch University; Masters by Research
- Identifiers
- 991005788079707891
- Murdoch Affiliation
- School of Law and Criminology
- Resource Type
- Thesis
Metrics
55 File views/ downloads
114 Record Views