NCRW Blog

Violence Against Women

Posted on April 09, 2013 by NCRW Communications

Let’s try something. What’s the first word that comes to mind when you hear “gun violence?” OK, what’s the second? Were either of those words “women?” In light of the recent national attention on gun violence, the National Council for Research on Women (NCRW) would like to draw attention to the gender specific angles of gun violence. The lens with which we view an issue helps us see, or not see, problems and solutions that impact a particular group, in our case focusing on women.

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Posted on March 20, 2012 by Vivienne Heston-Demirel

Shyama Venkateswar, Ph.D., Director of Research and Programs, was interviewed by Pasadena public radio KPCC on March 19th. AirTalk host Larry Mantle explored the controversy over reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act and Republican resistance to expanding the law's provisions to recognize LGBT rights and immigrant women seeking asylum due to domestic violence. Shyama gave a spirited defense of the new proposals and called for greater oversight and analysis of the Act's impact on violence and prevention. Brava! Listen to the interview here: http://www.scpr.org/programs/airtalk/2012/03/16/25648/vawa-and-gop.

Tags: public radio, VAWA, Violence Against Women Act

VIOLENCE FORUM: Beyond Firewood

Posted on December 19, 2008 by NCRW NCRW

December 19, 2008 posted by Shyama VenkateswarAn op-ed just came across our desk that we wanted to share, as part of this week's Violence Forum here at TRD. In a Boston Globe op-ed this week, Liv Ullmann, reminds us of the violence suffered by refugees in Darfur, Nepal, and Kenya. Writes Ullmann:For thousands of these impoverished women and girls, gathering firewood is more than a vital chore - it is often a matter of life and death. By doing what many of us achieve by simply turning on a stove, refugee women and girls regularly fall victim to rape, assault, theft, exploitation, and even murder... It's high time we get "beyond firewood" and explore alternative fuels and cutting-edge energy technologies, such as clean-burning fuels, fuel-efficient stoves, and solar cookers, Ullmann says. We need to reduce women’s vulnerability to violence by investing in alternative sources of fuel that do not require women to travel long distances to collect firewood.

Tags: alternative fuel, economic security, firewood, fuel, gender, Liv Ullmann, Poverty, refugees, violence

Posted on December 17, 2008 by NCRW NCRW

December 17, 2008 posted by admin

Tags: boys, education, gender, Jacquelyn W. White, misogyny, Poverty, sexism, violence

Posted on December 17, 2008 by NCRW NCRW

December 16, 2008 posted by admin If Vice-President-elect Joe Biden called me up seeking my input on how to build support for initiatives to end violence against women, I’d first thank him for wanting to hear from a young American woman, and a survivor of abuse, because it’s often women’s lack of political voice that enables violence to continue. Acknowledging Biden’s longtime advocacy on this issue, most notably, his drafting of the Violence Against Women Act (1994), I’d say, Joe, if you want to build support for this important law, and make sure it truly is the “greatest breakthrough in civil rights for women in nearly two decades” (NOW), it’s time to break through the military code of silence surrounding servicewomen survivors of sexual assault, and realize that to really end violence towards women, we must end war. As we celebrated the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights this week, People magazine released the story of three enlisted women who were brutally murdered at Ft. Bragg, NC. One in three women who join the US military will be sexually assaulted or raped by men in the military. And in Iraq the Army may be covering up the rape and murder of dozens of women soldiers.

Tags: Abileah, Biden, gender, Iraq, military, Obama, violence

Posted on December 16, 2008 by NCRW NCRW

December 16, 2008 posted by admin What does a skills training center for women in Sierra Leone, a village in Rwanda and an entire district in the Democratic Republic of Congo have in common? At each location, you are likely to find that the majority -- in some cases nearly all -- of the women and girls have been raped. What do women in these African countries have in common with women in the United States military? Silence and Inaction. A recent article reported that more than 37 women GIs in Iraq have experienced sexual violence at the hands of their own comrades: “The women…have reported poor medical treatment, lack of counseling and incomplete criminal investigations by military officials. Some say they were threatened with punishment after reporting assaults.”

Tags: gender, health, military, rape, violence