Violence Against Women:  The old is not new.

The annual 16 Days of Activism against Violence Against Women is 25 Nov. to 10 December.  https://www.unwomen.org/en/get-involved/16-days-of-activism 25 Nov is the international day for the elimination of violence against women established 25 years ago in memory of the Mirabal sisters, who were brutally assassinated on that day in 1960. They established the 14 June Revolutionary Movement in the Dominican Republic against the dictatorship of Rafael Trujillo. Their home is now a museum. Trujillo himself was assassinated six months later. Unfortunately his protégé stayed in power until 1996. The sisters are now recognized as national martyrs.  Allegedly the country is now a representative democracy.

10 December is international Human Rights Day. The 16 days has been going on since 1991 – 33 years.  I started working on violence against women in law school in 1976. Nothing much has changed.  Violence against women and girls (VAWG) remains the most prevalent and pervasive human rights violation in the world. Globally, an estimated 736 million women—nearly one in three—have experienced physical and/or sexual violence by an intimate partner, non-partner sexual violence, or both at least once in their lives. In the past year alone, 1 in 8 women and girls aged 15-49 has faced intimate partner violence.

9 million girls will still be forced to marry in childhood by the year 2030. Globally, over 230 million girls and women have undergone female genital mutilation, ensuring they never have any sexual pleasure, representing a 15% increase—or 30 million more girls and women—compared to data from eight years ago. 

The killing of women and girls is also on the rise. The number of women and girls killed intentionally in 2022 – nearly 89,000 – was the highest yearly number recorded in the past 20 years.  Women and girls are at greater risk of homicide at home.  While 55 per cent of all female homicides are committed by intimate partners or other family members, only 12 per cent of all male homicides are perpetrated in the private sphere.

The future bodes ill.  It is estimated that 80 per cent of people displaced by climate change are women. Ending up in a refugee camp means increasing violence.  70% of women experience violence in humanitarian contexts, double the global rate.  Violence against women and girls in digital spaces is also intensifying with prevalence ranging from 16 to 58 per cent, and younger women are especially impacted with Generation Z and Millennials the most affected.

As of 2023, 104 countries have comprehensive laws addressing domestic violence. 78 per cent of countries now provide budgetary commitments for services addressing violence against women (VAW). Countries that have enacted domestic violence laws report lower rates of intimate-partner violence than those without such legislation (9.5% compared to 16.1%).

Some countries however have gone backward.  In 2000, Russia repealed a law they had on the books that men beating women could only be prosecuted if the woman spent more than 3 days in the hospital.  Putin put that law back into the code in 2017.  When I left Russia in 2000, we had increased the number of shelters for women from 1 to 17.  The last I heard; it was down to 8 and that was before Russia attacked Ukraine.

Despite many countries passing laws to address VAWG, weak enforcement and discriminatory social norms hamper progress. An intense global backlash against gender equality and women’s rights has arisen. Impunity remains a concern, with only a small fraction of cases resulting in prosecution and conviction of perpetrators. One look at the cabinet choices for #45 shows a litany of violent and sexual abusers never held to account.  

We know what works and have known it since at least 1980. Comprehensive, whole-of government and whole-of-society approaches, that are supported by dedicated funding, including to women’s rights organizations, are the most effective for eliminating VAWG. The single most critical factor to drive policy changes in ending violence against women both in transnational contexts and in domestic policy is the presence of a strong and autonomous feminist movement.  

But that still does not address the root cause which is patriarchy.  We can’t eliminate toxic masculinity, discriminatory norms, structural inequalities, and stereotypes (gender norms) without addressing patriarchy. That is what males are the most afraid of as evidenced by the vote in November.

The UN Office on Drugs and Crime and UN Women released their report to coincide with the 16 days. UNODC and UN Women, Femicides in 2023: Global Estimates of Intimate Partner/Family Member Femicides (United Nations publication, 2024). https://www.unwomen.org/en/digital-library/publications/2024/11/femicides-in-2023-global-estimates-of-intimate-partner-family-member-femicides

The report says that the number of killings of women by family members and intimate partners – the most common manifestation of femicide – remains at staggering levels globally. Some 51,100 women and girls were killed at home by people closely related to them in 2023, accounting for 60 per cent of all female homicides. 

Since 2020, the number of countries reporting or publishing data on the killing of women by intimate partners or other family members has decreased by 50 per cent. Some of the biggest countries in population (China, India) and area (Russia) did not report.  2023 is higher than 2022 but with only 50% reporting take a guess as to the real number.

The highest rate is in Africa with the Americas and Oceania second and Europe and Asia last. In the Americas and Europe the murders were mostly by intimate partners and in the rest of the world by family members. While we teach about “stranger danger” the most danger is from our own family and our own home.

22-37% of the victims had reported issues and police did nothing. 140 women and girls are  killed every day, or one every 10 minutes. 60% of women but only 12%  of men were killed by intimate partners and nearly every killing of men was in self-defense. 84% of killings of women worldwide are classified as femicide i.e. killed simply because they are women. Only 14% of women killed were related to other crime such as robbery or fight. 2% were not known.

40% of the murders were also connected with sexual violence; 33% were extreme violence or mutilation; 30% were of prostituted women; and 23% deposited the body in a public place.

In Europe, 29% were killed with knives and 22% with guns. In the U.S. 70% were killed with guns. Free access to guns greatly increases the odds of death and multiple killings. Three-quarters of the time, the murder was done at home. Only 7% of the women had protection orders. 31% of the men also commit suicide and an additional 10% try to.

Murders of women in South Africa dropped for 2 decades but is climbing back up. Trends elsewhere have shown very little progress.  If your husband or boyfriend is beating you, get out.  He is going to kill you.

UNFPA that helps survivors of assault and works for sexual and reproductive health has received only 19% of its funding this year. And it’s going to get worse. The AP reported on Nov. 30, that glorifying violence against women has spiked since the election. The “manosphere” has ramped up their efforts with the slogan, “your body, my choice”. Fuentes, a toxic blogger, had 35 million views of this slogan on his post on X in 24 hours. Even middle school boys are chanting it.  In Wisconsin and Minnesota school districts sent out warnings about it.  Amazon pulled the t shirts offline.

Other slogans include “Get back to the kitchen” and “Repeal the 19^th.” These posts have gotten up to 4 million views. A man at Texas State University held up a sign that said “Women Are Property” until he was escorted off campus. Rape threats abound on TikTok and 4chan suggests “rape squads”  and adoption of the polices of The Handmaids Tale. The Global Project against Hate and Extremism also reported a spike of violent misogynist trends on 4chan and X.

One mother in Chicago ordered two self-defense kits with key chain spikes (what we used to call a “kitty,” a key knife, (Swiss army knife to me), and a personal alarm (we carried a whistle). In Wisconsin where I hail from, women have bought out the pepper spray.

The Institute for Strategic Dialogue has noted an uptick in violent misogyny online.  Some women are shocked.  Some of us are not because the more things change, the more they stay the same.

These are the males #45 catered to. These are the males who think they and only they should be at the top of the pyramid.  These are the males – sons, brothers, fathers, husbands – who voted for violence against women. This is who we are. These males feel they have a supporter in #45 and for once they are right.

Men have seen that women can and are doing what they claimed we could not do and it challenges their view of themselves.  What they fail to understand is that equality for all would free them too.  But they don’t want to be free – they want to be in control.

The 4B movement from Korea has come to the U.S. and should be adopted.  No dating, no sex, no children, no marriage until men figure out that being male means they are only half of humanity and must share with the other half.