Knowledge is power - the good kind!
Named Marie Claire’s 2023 Changemaker of the Year, Jess Hill is a journalist, author and educator who has achieved global renown for her groundbreaking work on gendered violence.
Her journalism in this area has won two Walkley awards, an Amnesty International award and three Our Watch awards. Her first book ‘SEE WHAT YOU MADE ME DO’ became a bestseller and was awarded the 2020 Stella Prize and the ABA Booksellers Choice non-fiction book of the year (and was shortlisted for several other awards, including the Walkley Book Award and the Prime Minister’s Literary Awards). It has been translated into five languages and is ranked the highest-rated book by any Australian author by readers on Goodreads.
In 2021, Jess presented a three-part television series adaptation of the book for SBS, which became the highest-rating factual program in the network’s history. Since then, she has written a Quarterly Essay on how #MeToo is changing Australia, produced a podcast series on coercive control titled The Trap, and has produced and presented a three-part series on Consent, titled Asking For It.
In her work as an advocate against gendered violence, Jess has made hundreds of media appearances (including several on Q&A, The Drum, The Project, Sky News and ABC radio), and has fronted more than 350 events across the country, addressing community audiences as well as educating magistrates, police, health and family law professionals on coercive control.
Talking Points
The Perpetrator’s Handbook – Understanding Coercive Control
Drawing on years of research and investigative reporting, Jess unpacks coercive control: what it is, how it impacts victim survivors, and how it traps them in cycles of fear and compliance. In this talk, she also explores who is most likely to use coercive control, and why; how perpetrators' actions follow a textbook of techniques to change the way their targets think and behave, and to establish dominance; why it so often goes unnoticed, and what must change in our legal and social systems to address it. As new laws are introduced in various states, the need for a rigorous understanding is pressing.
The Perpetrator’s Handbook – Understanding Coercive Control
Surviving Between Chaos and Control
We all know what it feels like to lose control: through crisis, heartbreak, or unexpected change. Jess Hill has spent years uncovering the hidden dynamics of abuse and survival, witnessing extraordinary courage in people who’ve endured the unthinkable. But her understanding of power and vulnerability is also deeply personal. After a sudden brain cancer diagnosis upended her life, Jess faced fear, failure, and the challenge of starting over. In this keynote, she weaves together the stories of survivors she has reported on with her own journey, revealing how strength can emerge from powerlessness, and how hope can be reclaimed even in the darkest circumstances.
Surviving Between Chaos and Control
Shame, Masculinity, and the Roots of Violence
At the heart of so much gender-based violence lies an unspoken force: shame. In a culture that raises boys to equate vulnerability with weakness, shame becomes unbearable—and often gets converted into anger, control, or violence. Drawing on her award-winning book and series See What You Made Me Do, Jess Hill explores how patriarchal ideals of masculinity trap men in cycles of dominance and disconnection that harm them and the women and children around them. In this talk, she invites audiences to look with clear eyes at how shame fuels coercion and abuse—and to imagine the communities we could have if we raised boys and men to tolerate vulnerability, using power to build connection instead of rigid hierarchy.
Shame, Masculinity, and the Roots of Violence
Reimagining Prevention: Can Australia end gender-based violence by 2050?
Australia has pledged to end gendered violence within a generation. But how to achieve this bold promise? In this lecture, Jess Hill traces the violent legacies imported with colonisation, the failures and ambitions of successive national plans to reduce violence, and the urgent lessons we must learn from both history and new evidence. From child maltreatment and intergenerational trauma to harmful industries, shifting gender norms, and the rise of adolescent sexual violence, Hill confronts uncomfortable truths about what’s working, what isn’t, and why the path to ending violence demands far more than improving gender equality and changing community attitudes.
Reimagining Prevention: Can Australia end gender-based violence by 2050?
Breaking the Cycle: Protecting Children and Families from Coercive Control
Jess explores how coercive control traps families in cycles of fear, reshapes children’s worlds, and conceals abuse. In this address, she reveals how coercive control targets not just partners but children too, creating hypervigilance, fear, and trauma that can last a lifetime. Drawing on case studies, lived experience, and research, Hill shows how understanding these patterns can radically shift professional responses – turning outcomes that might lead to family separation into pathways toward safety, healing, and resilience. Because recovery isn’t just survival; it’s prevention.
Breaking the Cycle: Protecting Children and Families from Coercive Control
MC, Host & Facilitator
As an MC, Jess brings warmth, professionalism and authority to every event. She creates an inclusive environment, makes guests feel comfortable and ensures conversations are insightful and engaging. With extensive experience hosting television series, podcasts and more than 350 live events, Jess is adept at managing complex topics with confidence and clarity, making her an ideal choice for events focused on leadership, social impact and diversity.
MC, Host & Facilitator
Jess Hill was pitch perfect. She nailed the brief and exceeded expectations. She took the audience on a very human, measured yet challenging journey through the difficult terrain of domestic ... keep reading Melton City Council
Jess was brilliant! The feedback regarding her keynote is all positive. I could not recommend her more highly as an expert in the field and for her ability to deliver information in a way that engages every delegate in the room. Anyone that hadn’t heard her previously was blown away and those of us who know her work settled in for the ride.
Jess Hill was knowledgeable, prepared and professional. She articulated the information in a way that was easy to understand and suited the audience.
Jess Hill’s reporting on gendered violence has changed the course of public policy in this country.
We're so happy with the way the event went this morning. We had about 200 people join the call, and the appreciative feedback has been flooding in. Thank you for sharing your insight and for communicating it so expertly. I'm sure it made a difference to many.
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