There has been a startling increase in the number of women who are the perpetrators of domestic violence.

New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics figures show that over the past eight years, the number of women charged with domestic abuse has rocketed by 159 per cent.

In 2007, 2,336 women fronted court on domestic violence charges, compared to around 800 in 1999.

Preconceived ideas of gender roles have led a lot of people to believe it would be virtually impossible for a women to physically abuse a man.

But co-director of Men's Rights Agency Sue Price says it is exactly this stereotype that leads to battered men hiding in shame, fearful of being ridiculed, or even prosecuted.

"I've had SAS soldiers in tears because the wife is a black belt karate expert and yet they know that if they even try to restrain her he might be charged with assault and domestic violence," she said.

"It's much harder for a man to actually admit that his wife is beating him up. They seem to regard it as a shameful issue and a lot of police actually say to men 'What did you do to make your wife hit you?' or 'Can't you handle your missus?'

"Those are things that seem shameful if a man can't keep his relationship on an even keel. They take it to heart very seriously and for a lot of them, the last thought is for them to call the police to have their wives arrested, because after all she's the mother of their children."

Ms Price says it is a well-known fact that many abusive women resort to using weapons, or wait to catch their spouse unawares before they attack.

"We have so many reports of people having hot liquids poured over them in bed, glasses broken, men hit over the head from the back, attacked while they're asleep, cut, burnt," she said.

Despite the many domestic violence support services available to women victims, Ms Price says there is almost no practical and legal outreach for men.

"There's been a lot of procrastination about the issue. Yes there are refuges but if you try and access them you'll find there's not one place for a man and his children," she said.

"Where do they move to when they've got a violent wife? How do they protect their children when they're in a violent household caused by a violent mother?

"On the other side of the coin as well, there are no treatment programs for women who are violent. There are no anger management programs. There's plenty for men, but not for women. That's of central need if we're going to treat this issue properly."

Funding fight

Ms Price believes the reason there are no services for male victims comes down to money and the monopoly women's services have over it.

"Women's groups are in total denial that women can be violent and they maintain that stand because they want to garner all the funding that's available under the domestic violence legislation," she said.

"They won't take it that a man can be a victim of domestic violence, they always portray the mantra that it's always women who are victims and men who are perpetrators. That's clearly not true. We've known it for years but there's been an absolute refusal to acknowledge it."

She says this has helped contribute to the increase in women abusers and has called on other states to follow NSW and release their domestic abuse figures, which she believes would tell a similar story.

"If you keep telling people they can do this and get away with it they will do so. It's a little bit like the situation in Victoria where a women can now murder her husband with impunity, providing she claims she was a victim of domestic violence - and that's after the fact, of course," she said.

"Thirty per cent of applications I believe are made by men for protection under the domestic violence legislation and I think we'd have similar figures in Queensland, she said.

"It was up to nearly 20 per cent when I last accessed the figures in 1999. Since then we've been prevented from seeing them."