The InStyle team has worked on different iterations of this special feature over the past three months. But each time, the story and statistics quickly became inaccurate as the number of Australian women killed in 2024 in an epidemic of gendered violence rose. Today, it stands at 49 women in 190 days, according to Australian Femicide Watch. Tomorrow, that number could be different.

In this InStyle special feature, with a cover illustrated by former Australian of the Year, Grace Tame, we’re commemorating the women lost to gendered violence and bringing this important issue back to the fore. Because violence against women isn’t a flash-in-the-pan crisis, it’s an epidemic.