16 Days of Activism

16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence is an annual international campaign that kicks off on 25 November, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and runs until 10 December, Human Rights Day. Since 1991, the dates for the campaign were chosen to link violence against women and human rights to emphasize that gender-based violence against women and girls is a human rights issue.

This 16-day period also highlights other significant dates including November 29, International Women Human Rights Defenders Day; December 1, World AIDS Day; and December 6, which marks the Anniversary of the Montreal Massacre.

Violence against women and girls is widespread and manifests itself in physical, sexual, and psychological forms including:

• Intimate partner violence
• Sexual violence and harassment
• Human trafficking
• Child marriage
• Femal genital mutilation
• Economic abuse
• Female infanticide

While gender-based violence can happen to anyone, anywhere, some women and girls are particularly vulnerable - for instance, young girls and older women, women who identify 2SLGBTQIA++, migrants and refugees, Indigenous women, Black women, women of colour, women and girls living with HIV and disabilities, and those living through humanitarian crises.

Stats - https://canadianwomen.org/the-facts/gender-based-violence/

Did you know:

• Approx. Every 6 days a woman in Canada is killed by her intimate partner
• Children who witness violence in the home have twice the rate of Psychiatic disorders as children from non-violent homes
• 1 in 4 of all girls have faced gender-based violence by the age of 19
• 7.4 billion to deal with the aftermath of spousal violence alone
• Domestic violence can carry over into the workplace, threatening women’s ability to maintain economic independence. More than half (53%) of study respondents who experienced domestic violence said that at least one type of abusive act happened at or near their workplace. Almost 40% of those who had experienced domestic abuse said it made it difficult for them to get to work, and 8.5% said that they lost their jobs because of it
• Women aged 15 to 19 and women aged 20 to 24 are five times more likely than women aged 25 years and older to have been physically or sexually assaulted by a non-intimate partner
• More than six in 10 Indigenous women have been physically or sexually assaulted at some point since the age of 15, compared with more than four in 10 non-Indigenous women
• Women with a disability are three times more likely to experience violent victimization than women living without a disability
• Immigrant women may be more vulnerable to domestic violence due to economic dependence, language barriers, and a lack of knowledge about community resources. Newcomers traumatized by war or oppressive governments are much less likely to report physical or sexual violence to authorities, for fear of further victimization and deportation
• Studies show that when racialized women report violence, their experiences are often taken less seriously within the criminal law system and their perpetrators routinely receive less harsh punishments
• In Canada, racialized sex workers — including black, indigenous, and other people of color, as well as visible minority immigrant and migrant workers — face severe health and rights inequities, and concerns have been raised regarding racialized policing and barriers to reporting violence to police.
• Transgender people are more likely to have experienced violence since age 15, and more likely to experience inappropriate behaviours in public, online, and at work than cisgender people · The gender pay gap can be measured in different ways. According to Statistics Canada (2022), as of 2021, the gender pay gap for full-time and part-time employees is 0.89, which means women make 89 cents of every dollar men make. The gender pay gap for full-time employees is 0.90, which means women make 90 cents of every dollar men make. · Every year, the Ontario Equal Pay Coalition and gender justice organizations and advocates mark Equal Pay Day, which “symbolizes how far into the year the average woman must work in order to have earned what the average man had earned the entire previous year”. On average, women must work 15 and a half months to earn what a man does in 12 months · Estimates vary, but the World Economic Forum (2021) has calculated that it will take 267.6 years to close the economic gender gap worldwide if present trends continue.

References

16 days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence. UN Women – Headquarters. (n.d.). Retrieved November 7, 2022, from unwomen.org 

16 days of Activism Against Gender-based Violence: United Nations Development Programme. UNDP. (n.d.). Retrieved November 7, 2022, from undp.org

Gender Based Violence in Canada: Learn the facts. Canadian Women's Foundation. (2022, October 14). Retrieved November 7, 2022, from https://canadianwomen.org/the-facts/gender-based-violence/