Gender equality for who?
Daniel Ellsberg once said that courage is contagious. His daughter, Mary Ellsberg followed her father’s path into activism and focused her career on Domestic Violence and Women’s Health. After interviewing 500 women in Nicaragua, her report shows that 1 out of 2 women had experienced physical or sexual abuse by an intimate partner. Surprisingly though, many of them had never told anyone about the violence they suffered at home. They kept it as a secret because they were scared.
After making positive change in making people aware of the need of a domestic violence law and its approval in national assembly, she stated “ numbers are important, but the faces behind the numbers are just as important”.
When we speak about gender violence, we may include sexual assault, genital mutilation, relationship abuse, sexual harassment, sexual abuse of children and many more. According to anti sexism activist Jackson Katz, the problem with the term “gender violence” is that it is normally seen as women’s issues only. Therefore, men do not necessarily feel included in this social-historical matter and for that reason, do not see themselves as an ally in the gender equality battle.
There is no accurate explanation on why gender violence against women is still such a huge problem in the XXI century. Some scholars explain this phenomenon with historical reasons using, for example the patriarchal culture as a main argument. The man in the center of all social relations and the idea of the women as his property leads to the feeling of ownership and subordination.
As a consequence, (and as it was shown by Mary Ellsberg in her Nicaragua studies) most women do not feel comfortable reporting such violations because they are afraid and feel inferior. This is not only a local problem.
According to the Brazilian Forum of Social Security, only 35% of Brazilian women go to the police after being a victim of any kind of assault. In Rio de Janeiro, the Olympic city, the Institute of Public Security registered 1.543 rape cases in 2016 ( around 12 cases on a daily basis). In the U.S, violence against women is a problem too. According to a National Crime Victimization Survey in 2008, approximately 500 women were raped every day.
The number of countries in which women suffer any kind of abuse is huge. We can go on and on to point out and compare numbers, graphics and different kinds of situations, but in the end, this is a global matter.
Violence against women is a problem without borders that needs to be discussed and fought against worldwide. According to UN Women, 1 in 3 women in the world will experience physical or sexual abuse in her life time. To solve this problem, we need to stop with the culture of silence, make women aware of their rights and start talking about feminism and gender equality in schools, at home and everywhere else.