More Than A Magazine, A Movement
Reports of violence against women and girls during the COVID-19 pandemic have increased around the world as many women and girls are locked down in their homes with their abusers, isolated from support networks and services.
The international community needs to take concrete actions to fund responses to combat violence against women and girls year-round—not just during an annual 16 day campaign.
Biden’s pledge to end violence against women centers on reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), restoring Title IX protections against sexual harassment and assault on college campuses, and increasing protections and programs for women in marginalized communities—including Native American women, adolescent girls of color, LGBTQ+ individuals, older women, women and girls with disabilities, immigrant women, and women service members.
These milestones—key initiatives, events, court cases and more from the past two decades—brought about pivotal shifts in the public consciousness towards sexual assault and the experience of survivors, and how we as individuals and as a society can prevent it.
Olivia DeRamus on Restless, her new social media platform for women and sexual violence survivors.
“I knew I had to find a way to empower myself again within the circumstances I couldn’t change. I thought that maybe if I couldn’t tell my own story, I could at least facilitate the stories of other women. That maybe I could speak indirectly through them, and feel like I was reclaiming my narrative, even if indirectly.”
Trump’s behavior has so dramatically lowered the bar for what is and should be expected of adult male behavior that it will take years to undo the regression. Come January 20, we will see if our nation’s “moral imagination” can be reignited—this time with infinitely more competent and enlightened 21st century leadership.
Under usual circumstances, risk factors for violence perpetration include job loss, economic stress, substance abuse, depression and feelings of isolation; all of these issues have worsened as the pandemic has continued. As a result, intimate partner violence and femicide have increased dramatically.
To end violence in society, we must address the drivers: the perpetrators of violence who are most often men and boys.
Have you seen someone being harassed and simply looked away because you don’t know what to do? Learn how to safely intervene through Hollaback!’s free online training.
