Tell Me No Lies

Women’s safety involves strategies, practices and policies which aim to reduce gender-based violence (or violence against women), including women’s fear of crime.

sexismandthecity:

Women’s safety involves safe spaces. Space is not neutral. Space which causes fear restricts movement and thus the community’s use of the space. Lack of movement and comfort is a form of social exclusion. Conversely, space can also create a sensation of safety and comfort, and can serve to discourage violence. Therefore planning and policy around safety should always involve and consider women.

Women’s safety involves freedom from poverty. This includes safe access to water, the existence and security of communal toilet facilities in informal settlements, slum upgrades, gender-sensitive street and city design, safe car parks, shopping centers and public transportation.

Women’s safety involves financial security and autonomy. Family income plays a powerful role in the cessation of battering. Resource accumulation and mobilization is a core strategy for coping with abusive relationships. Similarly, women’s economic empowerment reduces their vulnerability to situations of violence as they become less dependent on men and better able to make their own decisions.

Women’s safety involves self-worth. In safe homes and communities, women have the right to value themselves, to be empowered, to be respected, to be independent, to have their rights valued, to be loved, to have solidarity with other family and community members, and to be recognized as equal members in society.

Women’s safety involves strategies and policies that take place before violence has occurred to prevent perpetration or victimization. This can happen by improving knowledge and attitudes that correspond to the origins of domestic or sexual violence, such as adherence to societal norms supportive of violence, male superiority and male sexual entitlement. Furthermore, women’s and girls’ full participation in community life must be promoted, partnerships between local community organizations and local governments must be pursued, and including a full diversity of women and girls in local decision-making processes must be promoted. Prevention efforts involve strategic, long-term, comprehensive initiatives that address the risk and protective factors related to perpetration, victimization and bystander behavior.

Women’s safety means a safer, healthier community for everyone. This is a participatory process focused on changing community norms, patterns of social interaction, values, customs and institutions in ways that will significantly improve the quality of life in a community for all of its members5. This is a natural by-product of efforts that attempt to address issues such as family dynamics, relationships, poverty, racism and/or ending sexual violence. Building a healthy, safe community is everyone’s job.

1 Anna Bofill Levi, Rosa Maria Dumenjo Marti & Isabel Segura Soriano, “Women and the City,” Manual of Recommendations for a Conception of Inhabited Environment from the Point of View of Gender. Fundacion Mari Aurelia Company.
2 Alicia Yon “Safer Cities for Women are Safer for Everyone,” Habitat Debate, UN-Habitat (Sept. 2007, Vol. 13, #3), 9.
3 Mary Ellsberg & Lori Heise. “Researching Violence against Women: A Practical Guide for Researchers and Activists,” World Health Organization & Program for Appropriate Technology in Health, 2005.
4 Morgan J. Curtis. “Engaging Communities in Sexual Violence Prevention; A Guidebook for Individuals and Organizations Engaging in Collaborative Prevention Work,” Texas Association Against Sexual Assault.
5 David S. Lee, Lydia Guy, Brad Perry, Chad Keoni Sniffen & Stacy Alamo Mixson. “Sexual Violence Prevention,” The Prevention Researcher, Vol 14 (2), April 2007.
6 Morgan J. Curtis. “Engaging Communities in Sexual Violence Prevention; A Guidebook for Individuals and Organizations Engaging in Collaborative Prevention Work,” Texas Association Against Sexual Assault.