Search results

Goal 5 of the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) prioritises gender equality and empowerment of all women and girls. Key to achieving this is addressing violence against women (VAW; see SDG target 5.2) and, we believe, understanding the role of technology in both enacting and combating VAW. In this chapter, we outline how technology-facilitated VAW threatens women's use of technology and discuss policies and practices of support workers and practitioners that aid safe use of digital media. We consider features of technology-facilitated VAW advocacy which differ from traditional VAW advocacy, using examples from the Global North and South. Information communication technologies (ICTs) are used by VAW advocates in a range of ways; to provide information and education about domestic violence, safe use of technology and negotiating the legal and criminal justice systems; collect evidence about abuse; provide support; and pursue social change. As the capabilities and prevalence of ICT and devices increase and access costs decrease, these channels offer new and innovative opportunities capitalising on the spacelessness, cost-effectiveness and timelessness of media. Nonetheless, technological initiatives are not perfect or failsafe. Throughout the pages that follow, we acknowledge the limitations and challenges of technology-facilitated advocacy, which could hinder application of the SDG.

The 1993 UN Declaration on Violence Against Women prepared the grounds for the elimination of violence against women and girls (VAWG) as a key ambition of the UN Sustainable Development Goal 5 with Target 5.2 specifically turning attention towards the elimination of all forms of VAWG in the public and private spheres. In this chapter, we take as given the pressing need to reduce VAWG globally. We also acknowledge that measuring VAW is fraught with difficulties, even where criminal justice system responses exist, and that these difficulties can be magnified in countries which have no domestic laws that criminalise common forms of male VAW, including domestic violence. Thus the realisation of Target 5.2 is faced with specific problems of measurement when what constitutes ‘violence against women’ is contested and when there may be no commonly agreed legal indicators between different jurisdictions to act as a proxy for goal achievement. In light of these challenges, we consider how indicators can be best mobilised to provide useful measurements of progress and success for different communities, and for different types of violence(s) against women in the light of Target 5.2.

Feminism has provided a sustained challenge to the widespread occurrence of violence against women (VAW). Yet despite the tremendous efforts of feminist activists and academics, it continues to be one of the most tolerated crimes in the world. This paper offers an account of the author’s experiences teaching about VAW in higher education (HE) and an overview of how specific approaches to teaching this subject can provide an empowering space for students who have experienced such violence. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Drawing upon the works of feminists committed to ending VAW, transformative education as envisioned by Paulo Freire and Foucault’s work on knowledge and power, the author proposes a feminist informed teaching practice that facilitates empowerment through: giving voice to women who have experienced violence; exploring and promoting the transformative potential of education and; challenging traditional and dominant forms of knowing.

A recognition of the social, historical and political context in which violence occurs, and how traditional knowledge about it is accepted, is vital in empowering women who have experienced violence to challenge dominant discourses that do not fit with their own perceived reality.

Whilst there is currently a growing interest in the barriers to HE participation, the author seeks to explore the ways in which some of the barriers can be addressed that students may face whilst on HE courses, particularly in relation to self-awareness, empowerment and healing.

Although this chapter situates all violence against women as a human rights issue, it emphasises ‘culturalised’ forms of this violence, such as honour-based violence/abuse, forced marriage and female genital mutilation. The authors draw upon their respective research to highlight how these forms of gendered violence have been subjected to a process of culturalisation. The chapter shows that while this process has raised awareness of previously under-researched forms of abuse and highlighted some of the contextual differences between women’s experiences of violence more broadly, its overemphasis on culture and cultural pathology has resulted in policy and legislative responses that do not always benefit victims. Ultimately, this chapter aims to problematise ‘culturalised’ understandings of violence in diverse communities and to show how current policy, legislative and support responses fail to adequately address the intersectional needs of black and minority ethnic victims/survivors.¹

The key purpose of this chapter is to identify some ways of enhancing feminist conceptual, empirical, and theoretical work on violence against women. Much attention is given to addressing the harms caused by new electronic forms of woman abuse, including the role of adult Internet pornography and sex robots. This chapter also emphasises the importance of revisiting some major feminist contributions from the past.

In the contemporary media landscape, gender violence has achieved great visibility. However, the media still struggle to represent the complexity of violence perpetrated by men against women in its various forms – femicide, domestic violence (DV), intimate partner violence and violence against women. The narratives that represent such violence as an expression of individual deviance or as a crime of passion are still the most widespread both in fictional and factual products. This chapter will look at a case study by applying a multiperspective methodology of femicide and DV in an Italian town. In particular, the exemplary case study presented here was constructed by analysing newspaper articles, social networks and one television broadcast. The first part of the chapter is dedicated to the analysis of literature on femicide, DV and gender violence in relation to studies and research on media coverage, with particular reference to Italian studies. The second part presents the methodology applied in the research. The third part presents the outcomes regarding the analysis of the narrative, highlighting the frames that characterise it. Finally, the fourth part shows the conclusion that can be derived.

In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, many countries, including Palestine, implemented lockdown rules. These measures slowed the outbreak of the coronavirus, and because of the poor management of the Palestinian government in dealing with women’s rights in light of the Corona pandemic, they contributed to increasing gender-based violence (GBV).

The study used the qualitative method. An inductive thematic latent content analysis was applied using the MAXQDA 2020 program throughout the data collection stage. The content analysis in this study focused on interviews made with the survivors. The interview schedule consisted of four questions covering different aspects of knowledge around GBV during COVID-19 in the Gaza Strip. In-depth interviews were conducted in Arabic with 25 survivors who experienced GBV between January 17 and March 13, 2022.

The results show that the kind of violence the survivors were most subjected to is psychological violence, followed by economic violence, and the least kind of violence that the survivors were subjected to was sexual violence. The study revealed the good practices for preventing and combating violence against Palestinian women and girls due to government measures to reduce COVID-19 from the perspective of survivors.

One of the limitations of this study was the small number of cases coming to the Aisha Association for support. Because of the temporary suspension of psychological and social support projects from the foundation due to a problem related to funding, some survivors also fear that their husbands will discover that they have participated in the study, so they hesitate to agree to an interview. Survivors’ lack of understanding of the study question related to implications of closing social justice institutions due to COVID-19 on GBV? This led to conflicting answers.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, it is the first study in Palestine that dealt Consequences of Government Measures in Palestine to Mitigate COVID-19 on GBV, and its results will be important for the protection of survivors and the adoption of government policies in Palestine.

This intervention project targeted one vulnerable group, female apprentices in Ibadan, Nigeria, to evaluate the effectiveness of multiple interventions aimed at preventing voilence against women (VAW).

A baseline survey was conducted through face‐to‐face interviews with 350 young women recruited from apprenticeship workshops in Ibadan. The interventions consisted of skills training workshops for apprentices (323), sensitization training for the instructors of apprentices (54), police (30) and judicial officers (25) and the development/distribution of educational materials to reduce the incidence of violence. A follow‐up survey was conducted with 203 apprentices after five months of interventions.

Improvements were found at follow‐up with respect to knowledge of types of violence and sexual forms of violence (up from 89.4 to 97 percent) (p<0.05), and appreciation of vulnerability to VAW increased (from 77 to 95 percent) (p<0.05). The prevalence of beating dropped from 65.4 to 23 percent. A significantly greater proportion (p<0.05) of the apprentices reported payment for vocation‐related work (8.9 percent compared with 16.4 percent). Only a slight decline was reported in rape (5.7 to 5.4 percent) and sexual harassment (22.9 and 22.7 percent). The proportion of victims of violence who sought redress increased from 40.2 to 72.7 percent.

There is a need for more research into interventions that can reduce violence towards women.

Interventions targeted at female apprentices were effective in reducing the prevalence of forms of violence. The data generated may be useful for practitioners and in guiding policymakers on the regulation of activities in the informal sector. There is a need for more intervention programs for this population.

This paper addresses the needs of a marginalized group about a public health problem which is often denied or covered up.

The use of ‘community’ in the governance of minority ethnic groups in the UK is explored in relation to public responses to violence against women. It will be argued that effective prevention requires an understanding of the socio‐cultural contexts women face in negotiating culture and ‘honour’.