International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women 2023

November 25 marks the first in a 16-day campaign for the elimination of gender-based violence. This year's theme is UNITE! Invest to Prevent Violence Against Women & Girls, using the hashtag #NoExcuse. In order to combat harm that can be done to both women and girls, true investment must be made on social services and organizations that help to combat challenges that affect them disproportionately. Funding would play a critical role in supporting health programs and driving policy changes that affect women.

Gender-based violence can take many forms. While traditional definitions include physical forms of violence, such as sexual assault, domestic battery, and female genital mutilation, there are also much more subtle forms of gender-based violence that we wouldn't ordinarily consider as such: income disparity, lack of parental benefits, social stigma, etc. Whether it is a woman who has been beaten and tortured as a prisoner of war or a woman who has not eaten in days in order to have enough food to feed her own children, whether a girl has been kept from going to school due to menstrual poverty, bullying or to stay home and take care of her younger siblings, these are all forms of violence that can be mitigated if sufficient and appropriate investment is made. Over the next 16 days and beyond, focus should be placed on how to best invest in ways to empower women and girls to recognize and break the silence on different types of violence.

Gender-based violence has taken on new faces in the post-COVID era. Technology facilitated violence against women and girls, such as cyber harassment and online hate, was something rarely considered, but is now commonplace. In Canada, almost one in five women (18%) reported experiencing online harassment in 2019 and many had little knowledge of who was responsible (Government of Canada, 2019). Those who live their lives in the public eye are targeted in particular, be they parliamentarians or journalists. Social media has become the main channel for online violence, with a significant percentage reporting they have been attacked offline in connection with the online abuse. (Facts and Figures: Ending Violence Against Women, 2023)

The climate crisis has also been an important factor in the increase in gender-based violence, by being causes of displacement, loss of access to education, resource scarcity and food insecurity. Women are the first to go hungry, girls are the first to be given up in families and communities stricken by poverty. "In Ethiopia there was an increase in girls sold into early marriage in exchange for livestock to help families cope with the impacts of prolonged droughts" (Facts and Figures: Ending Violence Against Women, 2023).

Gender-based violence is also a drain on the economy in terms of increased burden on health care and loss of income for work days lost. Contributions to the economy made by women are frequently overlooked and the care provided to ensure their well-being often deemed unnecessary. Women and girls are rarely appreciated for the value of their contributions, and as such, both aggressive and subtle forms of violence against them are allowed to perpetuate.

For the next 16 days and beyond, take the time to consider both the obvious and the more indirect forms of violence that women and girls regularly face. Whether it is violence by the more accepted definition or a kind that is less recognizable but violence all the same, ponder the role each person can play to help eliminate it in order to uplift and support women and girls around the world.

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Facts and figures: Ending violence against women. (2023, September 21). UN Women. Retrieved November 16, 2023, from https://www.unwomen.org/en/what-we-do/ending-violence-against-women/facts-and-figures

Government of Canada. (2019, December 5). The Daily — Gender-based violence and unwanted sexual behaviour in Canada, 2018: Initial findings from the Survey of Safety in Public and Private Spaces. Statistique Canada. Retrieved November 16, 2023, from https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/191205/dq191205b-eng.htm