Code Red for Women and Girls

In terms of risk to women and girls, the country is at Code Red.

In the midst of record job losses followed with months of paralyzing unemployment, we are reminded of a basic pattern regarding violence against women and girls: incidents of domestic violence tend to rise during periods of economic hardship. Tragically, it is precisely during such times that services for women are less likely to get funds they need to meet the demand. Right now, all around the country, funding for domestic violence shelters and services is shrinking just as the need for help is skyrocketing.

Despite years of women's advancement in workplaces and educational institutions, we must acknowledge that we have not conquered the underlying attitudes that fuel gender-based violence. George Sodini's pointed attack on women at a gym in Pennsylvania, along with his blog postings outlining his anger at women in general, demonstrated an extreme and fatal strain of an attitude that courses through much of America's popular culture. Whether one wants to call these attitudes "misogyny" as Bob Herbert did in his insightful column on the incident, or a twisted sense of entitlement in relation to members of the opposite gender, the results are the same, and they are debilitating: women and girls are not individuals to be respected, but convenient and easy targets for frustration, blame and abuse.

So, what does this mean amidst what some pundits are calling a "Mancession," a phrase that, in and of itself obscures the fact that, regardless of who is out of work, women and children share in the sacrifice?  For those at risk of violence on the home-front, a job loss and prolonged unemployment have darker repercussions than economic hardship: more threats, more incidents of abuse and escalating levels of injury. Between September 2007 and September 2008, the National Domestic Violence Hotline (NDVH) saw a striking 21 percent increase in calls for help, and that was before the tidal wave of job losses rolled across the nation. NDVH also found that, in a five year study, women whose male partners experience two or more periods of unemployment are almost three times as likely to be victims of intimate partner violence as were women whose partners were in stable jobs.

While the repercussions are most acute and dangerous for women and children, the negative impact extends onto the ledger sheets of companies and states, with some simply unable to sustain the cost. Just a few weeks ago, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, in an attempt to deal with California's crippling budget problems, summarily eliminated $20 million of funding that supported the state's domestic violence shelters, a massive blow to the more than 90 organizations that provide life-saving assistance to victims of violence. 

We have come a long way from the days in which police and legal institutions treated violence against women as only a family or private matter.  Likewise, general public understanding of domestic abuse and sexual assault has improved, as advocates, educators and survivors have spent years explaining why “she was asking for it” couldn’t be farther from the truth. A major testament to this progress is the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), passed 15 years ago, which identified violence against women and girls as a national epidemic, requiring a national response. Under VAWA more than $9 billion has been appropriated thus far to improve services for survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking and teen dating violence and to educate law enforcement and members of the judiciary to improve prosecution of these crimes and the effectiveness of offender management. Still, this is only a fraction of the funds necessary to sustain these services for the millions of individuals and families in need.

With the current state of the economy, the rising levels of frustration, and persistent attitudes that cast women as deserving targets, the reauthorization of VAWA, due for consideration in 2010, provides an important opportunity to look again at what continues to be a national crisis. While George Sodini’s actions were extreme, the sentiments he held are still disturbingly commonplace.  The increasing rates of violence against women, coupled with the relentless threat of sexual abuse and assault faced by women and girls, constitute a sharp wake-up call that illustrates just how far the United States has yet to go to protect the safety of one half of our population.

While we can applaud how far we have come, it is imperative that policymakers and residents acknowledge that, for the more than 153 million women in the country, the threat is real, and escalating.

Follow Irasema Garza on Twitter: www.twitter.com/LegalMomentum

Comments

[themajor755]

Good comments all. Has anyone noticed the increased "physical conflicts" between women and law enforcement? We are all familiar with Susan Smith killing her 2 sons and then blaming it on a carjacker. Once it was determined that she had actually drowned her sons, we heard all the usual, "how could a mother do that", etc. One of the more "suprising" things I read in USA Today by an expert from an organization that studies situations like this was, "People in the know, know that mothers kill their offspring more often that fathers. And the gender of the child they kill most often is male". Could you imagine the justifiable outrage if it were the other way around? Ms. Garza should point out the studies that show in 70% of the case, women hit men first. I am by no means condoning men hitting women, I never have. My point is we cannot continue to turn a blind eye to women's role in "domestic violence" or "violence against men". Violence perpetrated by females on males is seen as funny or not violence at all. A talk show host had a perfect chance to ask "why" of a girl that was on her show who admitted to continuosly hitting her boyfriend until she got a response, though "maybe" not the one she wanted. We spent the better part of 3 decades telling boys to get in touch with their feminine side and it seems that they have.

[sunnybunny]

When things get tough people tend to blame each other for more of their problems. It's no surprise that economic problems would result in increased domestic violence. Violence usually occurs when one feels most helpless and frustrated.

[lungfish]

I think society has done well with respect to violence against women. Well enough that the conversation needs to turn to womens violence against men. I am talking about verbal, emotional and physical abuse at the hands of our female partners.... Yes, violence against women is an issue but there is an elephant in the living room and its the topic of violent women. By reading this article one is invited to believe that the yelling, the screaming, the temper tantrums, the affairs, the use of sex as a weapon, the childishness and juvenile bs that is really violence against their spouses that many women in engage in every single day doesn't really happen and women are always the victims....
I had a spouse who was the epitome of female violence... police never held her accountable, nobody could.... and in the end, I got away with some serious counseling and but I dont trust women now and haven't been in a relationship since....
So I think we would be better served if this topic was treated more fairly and with less emphasis on gender and more focus on learning how to behave....

[Johnniedog]

Continued fronm previous post.

She got to the point that I could no longer even have a conversation with her. Everything that ever went wrong in our lives together became MY FAULT.
I found out that all of the other Men in the class, there were twenty-three of us and there were three classes per day, had the same kind of situation that led to the physical abuse. Like me, they had never been violent people before and just snapped when the Verbal Abuse reached a peak. This is at the Heart of the "abuse against Women" problem and should be the focus of stopping the abuse before it gets physical. One other thing that is common in thes abuse cases it that the Woman always says "I didn't do anything wrong." In speaking the other Men, this is just not the truth.

[Johnniedog]

Being a Woman, you are convieniently leaving out the abuse that leads to more abuse. You are only citing the end result of an abuse that is just as bad as the physical abuse it leads too. It is called VERBAL ABUSE. When a Man looses his job, it is an assault on his Manhood and can lead to severe Depression. I KNOW, I had that very situation happen too me. I am not a violent Man, yet, I slapped my Wife and went to Jail for two days. I was also made to take a class for Anger Management. During this class, I had a chance to have extended conversations with the other Men and discovered that, they too, were victims of extended Verbal Abuse from their Wives. I was taught that, in a bad situation, you DO NOT MAKE THE SITUATION WORSE!!! For some reason, when a husband looses his job, the Wives tend to become extremely Verbally Abusive. They purposfully push their husbands buttons and will push beyond boundries that they should never cross. In my case, my wife would chase me around the house, getting right in my face, screaming to me how worthless I am and how I am nothing but a useless piece of shit etc........ You name it, she called and accused me of it. This would go on litterally for hours and hours.....every day.....for weeks.

[themajor755]

Damn!!