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Misogyny is not a mystery. It is a mechanism, and a mechanism can be redesigned.

Women's Health in the South East

It is unfortunate that, with the evidence available and the expertise available, myths and misinformation about what prevents violence against women are still being distributed. Two Australian studies close the question. Women's Health in the South East (WHISE) is asking that algorithmic recommendation be something a young person opts into rather than the setting they are given.

"There is no shortage of evidence here and no shortage of expertise. What keeps arriving instead is opinion, offered as though the question were still open," said WHISE Chief Executive Officer Kit McMahon.

"It is not open. We know what hardens these attitudes in boys, and we know the pathway that delivers them at scale."

Misogyny, Online Radicalisation, and Youth Extremism in Australia, by Dr Sara Meger of the University of Melbourne, surveyed 1,122 young people aged 13 to 17 and 2,307 adults. One in four boys aged 13 to 17 agreed with statements endorsing violence to resist feminism. Hostile attitudes towards women were the single strongest attitudinal predictor of support for violent extremism. The report concludes that misogyny is "not only a social issue, but a national security issue in Australia".

Teachers report the same from the other side of the desk. Duty of Care, released by Monash University on 28 August 2026, surveyed more than 2,600 teachers. 78% had observed or experienced sexism or misogyny at school, and 70% had seen manosphere content shaping student attitudes in the past twelve months. Dr Meger's teacher data records children as young as six refusing instruction from women.

WHISE coordinates the Promoting Respect and Equity Together (PRET) Partnership across ten local government areas and 1.56 million people.

The pathway is a design choice

Both studies find that online environments amplify these attitudes rather than invent them, and that recommendation systems carry the content to children. Consent advocate Chanel Contos has proposed applying affirmative consent to that design, so an algorithmic feed is something a person opts into. Dr Meger's fifth recommendation asks for the same in regulatory terms, through algorithmic accountability and age-differentiated recommendation systems.

WHISE is asking that the Digital Duty of Care legislation now under consideration make algorithmic recommendation opt-in for users under 18.

"A child cannot consent to a feed nobody asked them about," Ms McMahon said. "Make it opt-in. It is one decision, it is in front of government now, and it would do more for a generation of boys than any amount of commentary about whether the problem is real."

Meanwhile the work goes on here, with sixty partner organisations across the region delivering forty four primary prevention projects. WHISE will put this evidence to every candidate in every party contesting the November state election.

What boys learn about women is neither fixed nor accidental. It is produced at scale by systems people designed, and people can redesign them.

Support is available from 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732.

ENDS

Media contact: Dos Hetherington, [email protected]

Notes to editors

Meger, S. (2026). Misogyny, Online Radicalisation, and Youth Extremism in Australia. Research Report. The University of Melbourne, June 2026. Funded by the Office of National Intelligence through the National Intelligence Postdoctoral Fellowship scheme. Findings reported by the University of Melbourne on 28 August 2026.

• Survey of 1,122 young people aged 13 to 17 and 2,307 adults, October to November 2025, with qualitative data from more than 500 Australian teachers.
• Roughly one third of teenaged boys express misogynistic attitudes, mistrust of women and a belief in traditional gender roles.
• 34.8% of boys aged 13 to 17 agreed with the misogyny scale items and 25.1% agreed with the anti-feminist violent extremism items. Page 19.
• Over 30% of Gen Z males agree that gender equality measures have gone too far in Australia, 24 to 29% agree that feminism is a hate movement, and 23% of Gen Z males believe feminism should be resisted with violence. Page 16.
• Attitudes that normalise and excuse violence against women are the single strongest attitudinal predictor of violent extremism, exceeding the predictive power of all measured online behavioural variables.
• Online environments amplify but do not create extremist orientation. Engagement with manfluencer content is among the strongest online predictors of both hostile gender attitudes and violent extremist attitudes.
• "Misogyny is not only a social issue, but a national security issue in Australia." Page 45.
• Teacher data records children as young as six and seven making explicit gender-based exclusions, repeating misogynistic phrases and refusing to follow female authority. Page 49.
• Recommendation 5 calls for platform regulation and algorithmic accountability, including age-differentiated recommendation systems that restrict the recommendation of misogynistic, manosphere or violent extremist content to users under 18. Page 50.
• Recommendation 4 calls for investment in primary prevention at the age of onset, including extending respectful relationships education to Foundation level. Page 49.

Monash University, Duty of Care: Teachers' experiences of sexism, misogyny and sexual harassment in Australian schools, released 28 August 2026. National survey of more than 2,600 Australian Education Union member teachers.

• 78% had observed or experienced sexism or misogyny in their school.
• 70% had noticed manosphere content influencing student attitudes and behaviour in the past twelve months.
• One in two reported an increase in gendered violence among students.
• One in three occasionally consider leaving the profession because of gendered violence, and 16% consider it frequently.

ABC News, 2 September 2026.

• Consent advocate Chanel Contos has called for an opt-in model for algorithmic social media feeds, applying affirmative consent principles to online spaces, as the Australian Government considers draft Digital Duty of Care legislation.

WHISE Progress Report and Budget Acquittal, 2025 to 2026.

• Sixty partner organisations engaged in regional violence prevention work under the Promoting Respect and Equity Together Partnership, 2025 to 2030.
• Forty four primary prevention projects delivered by those partners.
• More than 9,600 community members reached through those projects.

WHISE programs referred to

• Critical Friends Network. Trains local practitioners as strategic advisors to school leadership on Respectful Relationships. Each active practitioner supports between six and ten schools.
• Promoting Respect and Equity Together, 2025 to 2030. The Southern Metropolitan Region's strategy for preventing gender-based violence, with WHISE as the backbone organisation.

Support is available from 1800RESPECT on 1800 737 732.

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About us:

ABOUT WHISE

 

WHISE is a leading health promotion and primary prevention organisation dedicated to improving women's health and wellbeing in the Southern Metropolitan Region of Melbourne. WHISE forms part of a network of Women’s Health Services across Victoria. Working in partnership with various stakeholders, WHISE advocates for gender equity, conducts research, delivers health promotion initiatives, and provides capacity-sharing support to enhance the delivery of women's health services. For more information, visit www.whise.org.au  

Contact details:

WHISE Communications Lead: Doseda Hetherington 0412 317 334.