Violence Against Women and Girls
November 25 each year proclaims The International Day for Eliminating Violence Against Women. For me, it is a sad day as I read about the plethora of startling statistics from around the world documenting the horror of murders, attacks, and suffering of women in diverse countries, including our own. The 2024 United Nations report on this subject estimate that globally 736 million women have experienced physical and/or sexual violence. The Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice and Accountability reported in 2022 that 184 women and girls in Canada were violently killed, primarily by men. One woman or girl is killed every 48 Hours. An average of 102 women and girls were victims of gender-related homicide per year in Canada. In 2009 the Canadian Department of Justice stated that 7.04 billion dollars was spent dealing with the aftermath of spousal violence alone. In countries such as Afghanistan, the freedom of women to study, work, travel, or be protected from violence is non-existent.
However, public protests, stories, and reports have been effective in reducing sexual violence in Canada. Women’s persistence in reporting sexual abuse in universities and places of work has achieved results. Complaints about police abusing women are now taken seriously. Progress has been slow in changing, practices in the Armed Forces to provide justice for women, but there is progress. The “Me Too” movement has encouraged women to speak about abuse and demand justice. Women are more likely to complain of abuse and seek justice without being ignored.
I have observed how women have stopped abuse by changing themselves. Some women have told me how one day they decided that they would no longer tolerate spousal abuse. Their firm declaration of this brought an end to the abuse. A woman who ends an abusive relationship without changing herself is likely to repeat the pattern with a subsequent partner. On one occasion, I asked a client who was in an abusive relationship, how she had taught her first husband that it was all right for him to beat her up. After a startled reaction, she exclaimed: “I guess I let him get away with it the first time”. I asked how she stopped the abuse and she replied: “I left him.” She then began to pay attention to how her failure to listen to what she felt or wanted left her open to the unreasonable demands and abusive treatment by others, including her current partner. Her decision to change brought results. She discontinued allowing herself to be the subject of abuse or the unreasonable demands of friends and relatives.
Women have been indoctrinated to be caregivers and prioritize the needs of others. We cannot solve the widespread problem of violence against women but we can help women, particularly young women, to respect their own freedom and dignity so that they are less likely to be subject to abusive partners, friends, and relatives.
Today we unite to End Violence against Women. #NoExcuse
-Sister Patricia McKeon, CSJ
