How Many More Women?: The Silencing of Women by the Law and How to Stop It

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Rich, privileged and powerful men have teams of lawyers at their disposal to suppress allegations and prevent newspaper stories from running. Individual women, frontline services, advocacy groups and journalists find themselves fighting against censorship. The weaponising of the law to silence survivors from speaking about their abuse, and anyone who might report on it, has been described as the 'perverse twist' of MeToo.

We are in a crucial moment: women are breaking through the cultural reticence around gender-based violence. But just as survivors have begun to feel empowered to speak out, a new form of systematic silencing has made itself more evident: rich and powerful men are using teams of lawyers to suppress allegations and prevent newspaper stories from running. Individual women, advocacy groups and journalists find themselves fighting against censorship. When defamation cases are brought against journalist or newspapers, the female victim survivors rarely have any agency over how the events are communicated or defended. Also defamation laws in the UK and USA vary with the onus switching between parties. We cannot act if we do not know. If women cannot speak about their abuse - and journalists are fearful of telling their stories - then how can we understand the problem of gender-based violence in our society? And how can we even begin to end it? Witty, gritty, insightful and true, this book is essential reading for all women. Robinson and Yoshida lay down the law, on law, in an accessible way, giving us the ammunition we need, not just to protect ourselves, but to go out there and win.' At this point in their careers, Yoshida works as a barrister– qualified in the UK and Ireland– and at the Centre for Reproductive Rights, while Robinson is an Australian barrister at Doughty Street Chambers in London. Robinson practises out of London on cases internationally and has worked on some high-profile cases such as representing Amber Heard in her UK trial. Robinson also works with women journalists and frontline organisations in reporting women’s rights stories.Another thing that’s revealed in court cases such as the US trial between Depp and Heard is the way the law is currently applied and interpreted in the best interest of men, while restricting womens’ rights to freedom of expression. Fast forward, then he sues her in the United States for an op-ed in which she doesn’t name him. She describes herself as a survivor and a person who became a public figure as associated with domestic violence, which is a fact.”

Crucial reading for any person wanting to fight against all forms of gendered abuse.' JESS PHILLIPS, MP Depp won the case in the US despite an outcome that Robinson describes as “absurd” and says that anyone who understands the law and the proclaiming jurisdiction that was set in London finds it absurd. I'm confident most of us have heard about Grace Tame, Britanny Higgins and the Depp vs Heard trials, both in the UK and the US. These are some of the very well-known cases that the authors use to exemplify how current laws —Australian, English and US ones— are tirelessly manipulated by men to silence women. Although the authors are able to delve further into certain cases but not into others —hence, censorship of particular parts of this book— it's virtually impossible to deny the facts they expose. These words of Marilyn Frye from her book The Politics of Reality instantly came to mind and lingered as I read How Many More Women by Jennifer Robinson and Keina Yoshida. At large, the book serves as a clear demonstration of how easily individuals can overlook systemic issues when they encounter them within a single case, and highlights the alarming tendency for people to repeatedly fall for the same overused, unoriginal textbook manipulative tactics when they continue to form their opinions solely based on circumstantial facts, spontaneous acquisition of knowledge, and unquestioned internalised biases; an approach that isolates the case from its critical systemic context, which also plays a pivotal role in perpetuating these patterns. That, along with the absence of essential knowledge base about the relevant social, legal and medical factors at play, especially when it comes to topics around which society is knee-deep in myths and misconceptions, like Coercive Control, Intimate Partner Violence and Sexual Assault—the core subject matters of the authors’ work—prevent individuals from grasping the full magnitude of the issue or developing the right perspective needed to recognise these cases as part of a broader pattern, leaving their perception vulnerable to being manipulated, and themselves to being complicit in facilitating the weaponisation of our collective ignorance of trauma and abuse dynamics to impose further harm upon victims.

Justine Nolan (Introduction)

The Sir John Clancy Auditorium is located at UNSW Sydney's Kensington campus, ( highlighted red on this map). The closest accessible drop off point to the Sir John Clancy Auditorium is at Gate 9, High Street.

Enter for your chance to Win one of 5 copies of How Many More Women? Exposing how the law silences women books. The book is written very plainly, with language that’s easy to read, instead of being couched in legalese.

The Sir John Clancy Auditorium has a hearing loop. Please see staff for assisted listening seats, and please turn your hearing aid to T for reception. This event is presented by the UNSW Centre for Ideas, UNSW Law & Justice and Sydney Writers' Festival, and supported by Allen & Unwin .