Violence against older women: over half of the victims over 60 years!

Violence against older women: over half of the victims over 60 years!

Wien, Österreich - Vienna is in the headlines, while the autonomous Austrian women's shelters (AöF) recently introduced frightening statistics on violence against older women. Before the International Women's Day on March 8, the AÖF pointed out in a press conference that in 2024 of a total of 27 victims of homicide, which were associated with domestic violence, 14 people over 60 years old. "That is more than half for the first time in five years," said Maja Markanović-Riedl, the managing director of the AÖF, what is described as an alarming "high". The data comes from a separate survey by the AÖF over the past five years.

According to Markanović-Riedl, women in the age group from the age of 60 often have difficulty taking advantage of help. Although domestic violence affects women of all ages, older women are particularly at risk because rigid gender roles and age discrimination meet. Less than eight percent of the callers at the Frauenhelpline have been over 60 years old in the past two years, and in the AÖF houses there are only two percent of the residents of this age group. An urgent need for action is therefore necessary to combat this grievance, as the AöF emphasized.

urgent measures required

future steps also have to focus on violence protection for older women, as is anchored in the current government program. At this point there was approval from Markanović-Riedl, which also called for a national action plan for violence protection and better documentation of female at the state level. These measures could help raise awareness of the risk to older women. Markanović-Riedl and her colleagues also see the need to specifically include care institutions and the healthcare system in the Enlightenment due to the loss of social status in retirement or through health problems.

In another current topic, the new federal government decided, among other things, a rental price stop in certain areas in its meeting. This is seen as part of the budget measures that are now to be brought into the National Council. Both the rental price policy and alarming statistics on violence against older women underline the challenges that the new government faces, as well as