What You Can Do to Tackle Women’s Issues

The statistics are sobering, even disheartening. According to various world agencies women are under attack all around the world, often in ways that society simply accepts as “the way things are.” It’s hard not to get discouraged about the state of women’s issues when you see statistics like these:

-          A woman in the United States is assaulted or beaten every 9 seconds.

-          One woman in 4 in the United States will experience domestic violence in her life.

-          One woman in 3 around the world will be assaulted in her life.

-          Three out of every 4 adults in the United States know someone who is or was involved in a relationship that involved domestic violence.

Thanks to activists who have worked hard to shine a bright light on domestic violence, people are more aware of this issue than they ever have been. In reality, the light shining on domestic violence may make it seem that we are making strides toward making life better for women around the world – but domestic violence is only one of many women’s issues that affect the lives of women, children and families – and by extension, all of society – every single day.

Other Women’s Issues Are Less Visible

Many issues affect and entrap women and children far more often than they do men, but they don’t usually get the same attention as domestic violence. These include crime organizations, cartels that engage in drug and human trafficking, illegal adoptions and even Internet love/money scams that target women in far higher numbers than they do men. Not surprisingly, the thousands of women a year who are entrapped and defrauded of tens of thousands of dollars – and sometimes suffer far worse fates – are far less visible than the men who fall for Nigerian brides scams, but any woman who has ever been on a dating service can tell you about the many contacts she receives from “nice men” who “only want to make her happy.”

In February, which is a month when we often highlight efforts to combat domestic violence and violence against women, it can seem especially discouraging to feel like we have made so few strides toward eradicating these women’s issues. It’s helpful to realize how far we have come in just a few short years even if there is still so very far to go. It was in the 1990s that the last state finally changed its legal codes to make it possible to charge a husband with sexually assaulting his wife, and not much before that, it was legal to beat your wife in most states. Today, nearly every state in the country has shelters, crisis hotlines and resources for women who are trying to escape lives of violence. These are just a few things you can do to help bring the same kind of awareness to other women’s issues that activists have brought to domestic violence.

-          Learn about issues like illegal adoptions and human trafficking. The more you know, the more you can help.

-          Listen non-judgmentally when a woman comes forward to talk about her experience with these issues. It takes a unique brand of bravery to tell others how you have been abused.

-          Share your own experiences. Many people doubt that these things really happen to women or believe that they happen to “other women” who probably deserve it. When you openly share your own experiences, you put a real, public face on these hidden women’s issues and make them harder to ignore.

One Billion Rising for Women’s Issues

On Valentine’s Day in countries all around the world, women will be taking to the streets to highlight one of the most important women’s issues of our times – violence against and inequality toward women. Unlike many other people empowerment movements, the One Billion Rising movement will be using a unique method to get their message across: dance flash mobs. In more than 60 countries and dozens of cities at noon on February 14, music will suddenly ring out, women will rise from where they are working, walking and sitting and … dance.

The One Billion Rising is a project of VDay, a global movement to end violence against women. Spearheaded by Eve Ensler, Tony Award winning playwright of “The Vagina Monologues,” V-Day supports anti-violence movements around the world. For years, the group has sponsored events on Valentine’s Day, but One Billion Rising is the most ambitious undertaking yet.

Facts:

One in three women globally will be victims of violence directed against women. This includes organized violence by governments and drug cartels alike, domestic violence, kidnapping and illegal adoption rings and one-on-one physical violence against women. While we read and hear a lot about domestic violence and other violence against women, little is being done to address the root causes and attitudes that support those who commit violence.

One of those root causes is the implicit acceptance that each case of domestic violence, each physical assault, each rape and each kidnapping is a singular incident, that there is no underlying cause that erupts in multiple ways that hurt and damage women throughout the world. That denial – the refusal to admit that there is a problem – manifests itself as indifference of authorities who shrug helplessly in the face of systemic and cultural abuses against women, familial denial of domestic violence and a collective silence and lack of outrage from the general public.

That silence will be broken in cities all over the world on February 14 and be replaced by the driving beat of One Billion Rising’s theme song. “Break the Chain.” Organizations from Mumbai to New York City, encompassing women from Somalia to Paducah, are participating. In some cities, there will be dozens of flash mobs. In other areas, women will travel for hours to join their sisters in a dance against violence. The goal of One Billion Rising is to engage one billion women and men in an unmistakable statement: we won’t stand by in silence anymore.

Sister, won’t you dance? Sister, won’t you rise?

The insistent chorus is one that we all need to heed if we’re to finally make inroads against women’s violence and tackle what may be one of the most defining women’s issues of our time.