While today is celebrated as International Women’s Day, new research is painting a sobering picture of the impact of family violence on wāhine.
More than half of New Zealand women have experienced violence or abuse by an intimate partner, which increases the risk of developing a mental health disorder or other chronic physical illness.
University of Auckland indigenous studies professor and Te Wānanga o Waipapa co-head Tracey McIntosh (Ngāi Tūhoe) was a co-author of the 2019 New Zealand Family Violence Study, which found domestic violence increases the risk of developing a mental health disorder by almost three times and a chronic physical illness almost twice.
“The more a woman experiences these things, the more likely she’s going to have an adverse health effect. Some of them can be related to post-traumatic stress syndrome. Some of that is just around toxic environments, high-level stress – all of those we know have an impact on health. So here we’re able to demonstrate that very significant link,” McIntosh says.