Addressing violence against women and achieving the Millennium Development Goals
MDG 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
Violence against women occurs in all social and economic classes, but women living in poverty are more likely to experience violence. Although more research is needed to fully understand the connections between poverty and violence against women, it is clear that poverty and its associated stressors are important contributors (see reference (5) for a review of the evidence). A number of theories about why this is so have been explored. Men in difficult economic circumstances (e.g. unemployment, little job autonomy, low socioeconomic status or blocked advancement due to lack of education) may resort to violence out of frustration, and a sense of hopelessness. At the same time, poor women who experience violence may have fewer resources to escape violence in the home (6).
Efforts to reduce poverty and hunger may help, in and of themselves, to prevent violence against women and should thus be supported. But economic development strategies must be conceived in ways that respond to and address gender inequality. For example, such strategies must:
- promote increased access to post-primary, vocational and technical education for women;
- address gender gaps in earnings as well as barriers to accessing credit for women;
- extend and upgrade childcare benefits to enable women's full participation in the paid labour market;
- address issues of occupational segregation that often translate into inferior conditions of employment for women; and
- ensure social protection and benefits for women in precarious employment situations – often those involved in informal employment.
In summary, economic development strategies should aim for decent, productive work for all (1). It should also be recognized that increasing women’s educational status and economic independence does not guarantee the elimination of violence. In some cases, this may actually increase women’s chances of experiencing violence – at least initially. Improved economic conditions may provide more opportunities to escape and avoid violence, but they are only part of the complete eradication of violence against women.
Programmes to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger should be designed specifically to promote women’s economic participation and independence of women in ways that do not expose them to increased violence.
Poverty and hunger force many women to migrate as a survival strategy. In many countries, women migrants working in domestic service or factories are at high risk of experiencing abuse by employers including confinement, slave-like conditions, and physical and sexual assault. Some women may resort to transactional or commercial sex in order to survive, or fall into the hands of traffickers (7).
Efforts to reduce poverty and hunger should be allied with efforts to safeguard female migrants, and to reduce trafficking of women and girls4. Specific measures include creating local economic opportunities for women so that they do not have to migrate, pre-emigration education and counselling (pioneered by the Philippines and since taken up by other countries), and programmes in host countries to protect migrant women’s rights (8).
Women and girls often bear the brunt of conflicts (9,10). It is estimated that at least 65% of the millions of people displaced by conflict are women and girls who face daily deprivation and insecurity. Violence against women is increasingly documented in crises associated with armed conflict, with rape and other forms of sexual violence used to humiliate and intimidate civilians and as tactics in campaigns of ethnic cleansing (11,12). Women living in conflict situations, or in camps for refugees or displaced persons are already very vulnerable to extreme poverty, hunger and illness. Their situation is frequently made even worse by the high rates of physical and sexual assault against them, including by intimate partners, which have been documented in such circumstances (13,14). In some cases, women and girls are forced to submit to sexual abuse in order to obtain food and other basic necessities such as fuel and water (15,16). Humanitarian relief programmes should be designed to protect women and girls in situations of war and displacement, and to ensure that their basic needs are met5.
4 For further information, see: UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children; Resolution A/RES/48/158; and International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families; A/RES/58/143. Violence Against Women Migrant Workers.
5 For recommendations on the protection of females in war and conflict, see: Rehn E, Johnson Sirleaf E. Women, warand peace, progress of the world’s women. New York, UNIFEM, 2002. For the work of UN High Commissioner for Refugees regarding women and children, see: http://www.unhcr.org. For a list of relevant materials, see: http://www.rhrc.org