March 8th was International Womens' Day, so I went with my mother and sister to an event with forums and speakers and all kinds of fun stuff. One of the programs available was a seminar by an organization called We Can, that is trying to end all violence against women.* I went into the session and was one of four participants. I'm now going to give you a crash awareness course.
The definition of violence against women is this:
"Violence against women is any act that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or
psychological harm or suffering, including threats of such acts and coercion or arbitrary
deprivation of liberty, whether in public or private life."
That pretty much sums up the problem. This abuse takes place in many forms, from physical and sexual abuse, to psychological and economic violence.
This violence and abuse takes place for various reasons. Some leading factors include:
• Historically unequal power relations between women and men
• Differentiated socialization of girls and boys
• Women’s unequal access to political, economic and legal sectors
• The use of violent means to resolve interpersonal conflict
• Unequal symbolizations and valuations of women’s and men’s bodies
A main idea that harbours violence against women is the de-humanization of women. In the media, women can be portrayed as objects which indirectly leads to the thought that women are less than human and do not deserve to be treated as equals.
Violence against women affects more than just the abused and violated woman. The effects are divided into four different categories:
- Individual (the women physical and psychological health are hurt by the action; lowered self esteem, economic dependence and many other effects are possible)
- Family ("Children who experience violence or witness marital violence within the home have a
higher propensity to become violent with others or suffer from violence themselves.")
- Community ("Women's isolation and lack of social support, predict higher rates of violence against women.")
- Society ("The economic costs associated with violence against women are high, included in these costs are: health care, policing, incarceration, intervention, transition houses, diminishe productive capacities, social services, child services, court proceedings and intergenerational effects.")
These are just some of the effects, there are many others which can be found at this website: http://www.wecanbc.ca/index.php
Our society downplays the violence giving it a name (domestic) that claims it is a private, family matter, none of your business, butt out. Women being battered by their husbands are told that they need to stick by him and see the marriage through, by their friends and family. What kind of sick advice is this? Children learn violence is acceptable because their mothers usually do nothing to stop it, mainly because of fear.
"Globally, one in three women has experienced physical or sexual violence or abuse by a male" and yet "In Canada only 30 percent of women who have experienced physical violence and less than 10 percent of women who have experienced sexual violence report these offences to the
police."
Why don't people report it? Because it's seen as shameful, by our society, and sometimes the women won't be believed. Women are scared and chances are, this will keep them from reporting the incident.
Sorry if this has been a bit scatterbrained. It's a huge topic to cover and so I basically just paraphrased and summarized the information that you can find on http://www.wecanbc.ca/index.php . All the quotes and statistics are from there and I strongly encourage checking it out if you're more interested in the topic.
The first step to stopping this problem is raising awareness, so the best thing you can do is get informed and let your friends and family know about this huge violation of human rights. I'm going to stop now, but hopefully this blog has helped someone in some way.
If you are someone you know is experiencing domestic violence you can visit this website: http://www.ndvh.org/ or call this number: 1-800-799-SAFE (7233).
*One problem I have with this is that it focuses on women exclusively. I understand that women are higher targets for violence but shouldn't we be trying to end violence, period? Why can't we just end violence, for good, for everyone?
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