Browse by Theme: Gender Based Violence

Understanding of the extent to which sexual harassment affects industries across the globe has increased exponentially. Numerous studies emphasise the frequency with which women experience violence and harassment at work. The Australian Human Rights Commission’s recent report on sexual harassment in the Australian workplace found that 1 in 3 women have experienced sexual harassment in the past five years. Emerging evidence in South-East Asia suggests this figure is higher than 1 in 2 in some industries. Such studies, combined with the spotlight shone on this topic by the #metoo movement, mean the prevalence of sexual harassment globally is undeniable. 

From Cox’s Bazaar to Kinshasa, women are not passive beneficiaries of assistance. Women responders – volunteers, activists, leaders, women-led groups, organisations and networks – are taking actions to mitigate and respond to protection risks. Yet too often, women are sidelined by humanitarian programming. That’s not just discriminatory – it’s ineffective.

Co-authored by Caroline Kende-Robb, CARE International Secretary General, and Howard Mollett, Senior Policy Advisor

November 29th is the International Day of Women Human Rights Defenders, part of the 16 Days of Activism on Violence against Women and Girls. So it’s a good time to ask: how can the humanitarian sector better empower women – both within humanitarian agencies as well as local civil society activists – to address violence, and empower women and girls, in times of crisis?

Co-authored by Glen Tarman, CARE International’s Head of Global Advocacy, and Lisa Hadeed, CARE International’s Senior Communications Coordinator.

Movements like #MeToo, #YoTambién, #BalanceTonPorc, #NiUnaMenos and others have sparked widespread debate; violence and harassment against women is being exposed in more sectors, and the violence endured by women who are often less visible is gaining more attention. But there’s one debate taking place that more people should know about – here’s 5 reasons why...

We can’t achieve women’s financial inclusion without considering harmful social norms and trying to change them. This was the key message I shared during the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation’s (SDC) annual Savings and Credit Forum in Bern earlier this month. The forum’s theme was ‘how to reach 1 billion women’ and I was there on behalf of CARE International UK and the CGAP Women’s Financial Inclusion Community of Practice to speak about how gendered social norms create barriers to women’s financial inclusion, and how to change them.

CARE’s advocacy team travelled to the party conferences this year with one goal: to build support for our #ThisIsNotWorking campaign. How many MPs could we get on board to push for a new global law to tackle workplace violence and harassment? Surely, we should only have bothered with TUC and Labour conferences if we wanted a workers’ rights issue to be met with open arms? But look a little closer and there was a decidedly receptive attitude in Birmingham to ending abuse in the world of work, as long as you knew where to look.

#MeToo has left me thinking what would my ancestors have done to keep up the pressure for change? I’d like to think they would have leapt at the opportunity to build an inclusive movement across class and national boundaries. And that they would have fought hard for all women to be protected from violence and harassment.