Since 2007, Oxfam Canada has focused on women’s rights as a way to end global poverty and inequality, and Executive Director Robert Fox has helped to steer this transition. He explains that although women tend to do some of the most interesting work around poverty reduction, they are often the most marginalized. Unless women’s rights and gender equality are considered in anti-poverty work, fundamental change is not possible.

Today, on the International Day to End Violence Against Women, Fox urges us to consider how important women’s right to personal safety and security are in the struggle to end global poverty and injustice.

Violence against women is pervasive. It happens in women’s homes and communities in Canada and around the world. It happens at the hands of strangers, loved ones, and officials who we are asked trust. It does not discriminate on the basis of class, education, ethnicity, or religion. It can be physical and/or psychological, and its harm extends beyond individual acts. As Fox explains, “the dynamics of violence play a critical role in depriving women of their space, their voice, and their ability to act as citizens”.

Fox is painfully aware of the complexity of this issue. For instance, he recently visited Zimbabwe, where he watched a community docudrama about a young woman who had been widowed when her husband died of HIV. Although she knows that she is HIV positive, her family ignores this and plans to let her brother-in-law inherit her. The young woman is faced with a dilemma: does she tell her family at the risk of being ostracized, or does she say nothing, knowing that she will pass on the disease?

After the play, Fox assumed the community would discuss the problems of “inheriting” widows; however, the community was more concerned about the woman being tested for HIV. What's more, some men in the community blamed the disease on evil spirits on the wife’s side of the family, rather than on the husband’s risky behaviour. Unfortunately, this kind of victim (woman) blaming takes place around the world. Fox points out that Canadians are no exception. “Within our own society the way that boys relate to girls and the way we define masculinity” is problematic. This becomes obvious when you consider how many women have been told that domestic abuse is a “private” matter, how many missing First Nations women fail to make the headlines or how many times violence is said to be the woman’s fault.

If we want to address violence against women in a sustainable and fundamental way, then we need to address it at the level of societal norms and attitudes. In Nicaragua, one of Oxfam’s partner organizations, Puntos de Encuentro, has created a soap opera that does just that. Like Degrassi High, the show follows the lives of a handful of high school students, and addresses tough issues like gender equality, family violence, rape, homophobia, and drug abuse. Fox says the show is successful because it “gives people permission to talk about the taboo”, which “is absolutely critical in terms of changing people’s awareness and sensitivity, and what is acceptable and not acceptable”.

At the individual level, the Girl Child Network in Zimbabwe provides girls with safe spaces before and after school. Girls participate in activities that build confidence and challenge gender norms. For example, they rewrite rap song lyrics from “booty” to “beauty and what I want to do when I grow up”.

In Canada, Oxfam is part of a movement in British Columbia called “We Can” that rallies women and men to pledge to end all forms of violence against women.

Although women’s experiences of violence remain sobering, Fox is encouraged by the work being done to address the issue. He cites the creation of laws that name violence against women, training programs for law enforcement, and the fact that women and men are committing to change attitudes about gender equality as positive steps. Today, as we think about how we can act against violence, know that we can continue this momentum, we can effect change, and we can end violence against women.

Eliana Clay is a graduate student in Women and Gender Studies at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax. She is also an intern with Oxfam Canada in the Maritimes. Eliana’s is working to raises awareness of the issue of violence against women through story sharing from many different perspectives. Why? According to Eliana, “How can we begin to fix something we can’t even talk about?