After an illustrious career spanning more than half a century – one that includes opening Australia’s first domestic violence refuge and publishing seminal research on how abuse impacts women and girls – it’s fair to assume that it takes a lot to surprise Dr Anne Summers. But one fact from her latest report did: the extent to which domestic violence is being perpetrated against female university students, and the rate at which it’s forcing them out of higher education. 

“[It] really, really shocked me. I should have known it, but I didn’t. By year three of a degree, something like 10 percent of women have dropped out permanently and will never finish. At a time when more women in Australia go to university than ever – getting degrees and all the benefits that flow from that – there is a group of women who are being denied those benefits because men are stopping them.” 

This early career decision, she points out, can have lifelong impacts on a person’s career – where and if they get a job, as well as how much money they make. Their ability to determine their own economic future.

Dr Summers joined FW’s podcast There’s No Place Like Home: Paths to Healing for a panel discussing the role having a job plays in a victim-survivor’s ability to heal in the long-term. For the first time, her 2025 paper, The Cost of Domestic Violence, quantified the economic impacts of domestic abuse on women in Australia. It found that women who’ve experienced economic abuse are nearly 10 percent less likely to be employed. 

“Being abused actually impacts your ability to get work,” said Dr Summers. “It’s not as if you’re walking around with a sign on your face saying, ‘I was abused, don’t hire me’. But it’s your mental state, your physical state, your ability to pick yourself up. And it’s not easy to find a job anyway, regardless of abuse.”

Dr Summers was joined by Belinda Casselden, a survivor-advocate who had a successful career that was derailed as a result of abuse perpetrated against her. Since escaping, despite her accomplishments, she has spent years struggling to return to financially sustainable, meaningful work.

“It’s like you’re describing my life, really,” Casselden told Dr Summers. Casselden was an executive professional and, at one point, the main breadwinner for her family. After leaving with her children, she stepped away from paid work. – but that had never been part of her plan. By the time she started reapplying for jobs, she says prospective employers viewed her resume gap as a liability.

“I’d had this incredible career doing amazing things. I’d launched new businesses, I’d set up a charity, I’d been on boards. I had all this experience and I still couldn’t get work,” she said.

“Women who have been through abuse are already feeling pretty diminished. To be in a workplace where you’re told you’re having a positive impact is really powerful.”

Casselden believes these attitudes are part of the reason returning to work is so difficult for victim-survivors. She’s a staunch advocate for workplaces to better recognise what talented, experienced women like her – who happen to have been abused – could bring to their organisations. Not to mention the positives for the women in question.

“If we can provide employment to women who are leaving abusive situations, not only are they financially benefitting, but you have a situation where work provides things like social connection. It makes you feel valued. It helps with your mental health, because women who have been through abuse are already feeling pretty diminished. So to be in a workplace where you’re told you’re having a positive impact is really powerful.”

Dr Summers agreed more needs to be done to embed structural support for victim-survivors into Australian systems. 

“Domestic violence is so pervasive, [we need to help] women escape and make sure they can get an education and employment, [so they can] deal with post-traumatic situations [and] they can heal and thrive. We have to ensure that these are all embedded in our society and are not just unusual things.”  

While Casselden lamented the way domestic abuse has sabotaged her career, she also recognised all that she’s achieved in spite of her extraordinarily difficult circumstances. 

“I’m incredibly strong, courageous and resilient. I have been able to get through some tough things and at the same time, I’ve advocated for a whole lot of other women. I really want to see change in this place, because everybody has the right to thrive. And if my story or what I do has a positive impact on another person… I’m proud of that.”