By Jenel Hunt
It was an evening of all things yellow when the Zonta Club of Stanthorpe held a fund-raising dinner at the Queensland College of Wine Tourism on 8 March to coincide with International Women’s Day.
More than 50 women gathered for the event, and most of them wore at least a hint of yellow in a myriad of shades from palest lemon to vibrant gold while fabric-covered chairs sported yellow tiebacks and the tables had centrepieces built around yellow silk roses, signifying Zonta’s floral symbol.
The night started with bubbles and canapés. Dinner was a choice of slow-cooked brisket in a peppercorn sauce or organic chicken breast with white polenta, with desserts of whipped cheesecake and panna cotta featuring somewhat unusual additional flavours.
The night, which included multiple raffles, was held to raise funds for Zonta international projects with the aim of building a better world for women and girls. And while the atmosphere was happy and inclusive for the Zonta members and their guests, the guest speaker Laura Marschke struck a sober note when she talked about financial abuse.
Laura is the chairperson of the Domestic Violence Action Centre which operates in the Greater Ipswich area, the Toowoomba region, nearby towns and as far south as Warwick and Stanthorpe. The organisation’s aim is to support individuals who are experiencing, have experienced, or use violence in their relationships, including domestic, family and sexual violence.
Laura, with a Masters in Financial Planning and more than 20 years’ experience of working in the financial industry, is also a mother of three.
She said her qualifications were not a guaranteed protection from gender bias and told a story of being the only woman in a room with more than a dozen men during a work situation.
“They looked me straight in the eye and gave me a coffee order,” she said.
“It’s a clear illustration of a broader societal issue where women are seen as less capable of having business acumen.”
Within society, the traditional gender stereotype of believing women did not understand maths or finance masked economic abuse, she said.
“We need to talk about this topic more, to remove the taboos around it. We all know violence and abuse is not just physical.
“Financial abuse is about control, exploitation and sabotage. The most common tactics are to withhold money, not allow women to have individual bank accounts, appropriate their income and use other forms of coercive control.
“I’ve seen cases of the intentional ruining of a partner’s credit rating, appropriating money from a joint account, putting repeating bills in one name while keeping assets in the other’s.
“Financial dependence stops people from leaving bad situations and sometimes when a couple does separate the abuse still continues.“
She said published figures were that one in 30 women and one in 50 men were subject to financial abuse.
“And that number is probably a lot lower than the reality, because people feel such shame about admitting it is happening to them,” she said.
Inadequate child support, debts and the rising cost of living impact heavily on domestic violence survivors.
“In fact, many will say that the financial hardship issue is one of the hardest parts of it.”
“Educating people in financial literacy – budgeting and debt management – is critical. We need to address the underlying gender inequalities that exist. It’s an honour for me to collaborate with such an organisation that is deeply committed to reducing gender violence, domestic, family and sexual violence. We’ve made strides towards financial equality. But we are very aware that the violence needs to be not just recognised but eradicated.”
