Toxic masculinity in small rural towns has been around for decades. It pressures young men to hide their emotions and to act in an aggressive and dominant manner towards themselves and, largely young women. This culture of toxic masculinity causes many young men to suppress young women and their rights to have a voice in society.

As a female activist in a small community, you encounter many challenging individuals. The people who you are fighting against for positive change within a community are the people you know, and you will have to continue to see every day if you face resistance. As a result of this close connection between people in a small town, fewer young females are willing to be activists to drive necessary change. As well as this, in remote communities, there is a slower rate of societal change simply because of the isolation from supportive activism.

In negative circumstances and situations, the women in this community provide hope and a willingness to drive change. Within small rural communities’ domestic violence in families has escalated in the past year since the global pandemic COVID-19 first affected Australian towns. A local non-for-profit women’s shelter in Nhulunbuy provides women and their children temporary safe accommodation whilst they wait for further help in their home situations. As these families are not safe from the violence they experience in their homes, the women’s shelter does not have the funds to provide a permanent safe accommodation so the women and families return to their abusive household. Therefore, the staff at the shelter do regular wellness checks on these women and their families ensuring that they are safe and provide help and support when needed. These selfless women put themselves in danger to ensure that these families are safe.

The mothers work consistently behind the scenes to plan and organise events for the youths in their community because they believe in the future of the town and their children. We typically see men/dads running sporting activities for their children, but we never acknowledge or see the hours of work and money that the mothers invest in events to provide a safe and enjoyable event for their children.

Local small companies that are largely run by women such as East Arnhem Real Estate, sponsor youth organisations to help provide them with opportunities that they typically would be provided if they lived in a larger city, but due to their remoteness are not available. These small businesses employ people in communities who may not have had the financial means to obtain a higher education.
Many female leaders in this town live the concept of feminism and are outspoken about what it means, enabling younger females to feel valued and drive change in male perceptions. These young inspiring women openly advocate the true meaning of feminism in a town where the thought of women working in “masculine” jobs such as mining or machine operation. These women demonstrate the power that women have when they come together to change the recurring presence of toxic masculinity culture, both in youth and adulthood.

The women in small rural towns are passionate, empathetic, and hopeful. They use their roles of being mothers, business owners, and leaders to drive better change in their community. A large amount of these women invest their money, time and compassion in the young youth both male and female. Rural women seek a better future and believe youth are the solution to breaking the cycle of toxic cultures like toxic masculinity.