New research shows that women's rights organisations are key to tackling violence against women and girls, yet a lack of funding is stopping them in their tracks
Violence against women and girls is not new: it's hardly even news. Sure, the occasional high profile or particularly grizzly case hits the headlines - the Oscar Pistorius trial, the Delhi gang rape, the beheading of a woman in a north London garden. But for the millions of women (one in three of us in fact) who face beatings, rape, sexual assault, stalking, harassment and emotional abuse, violence is largely unreported or ignored.
Violence against women isn't confined to one country, culture or way of life. It is a global system through which men exert power and control over women. Violence or fear of violence affects all women, everywhere.
To tackle it, we need to dig down into the root causes - the unequal power relations between women and men, and the attitudes, beliefs and behaviours which condone and promote violence. These don't change overnight, the world has been built on male privilege and patriarchal rules that keep women in their place.
Yet there's a force for change in women's lives - a group of people who are standing tall and challenging the status quo, pushing boundaries and questioning power. Women's rights organisations are the champions of the …show more content…
A survey by the Association of Women in Development in 2011 of 1,119 women's rights organisations from over 140 countries showed that only one in ten received funding from bilateral, national governments and INGOs, and only 6.9% received funding from UN Women. Funding tends to be short-term and project tied, so women's rights organisations which have their own strong visions and agendas, are often forced to follow the latest donor
Violence against women and girls is not new: it's hardly even news. Sure, the occasional high profile or particularly grizzly case hits the headlines - the Oscar Pistorius trial, the Delhi gang rape, the beheading of a woman in a north London garden. But for the millions of women (one in three of us in fact) who face beatings, rape, sexual assault, stalking, harassment and emotional abuse, violence is largely unreported or ignored.
Violence against women isn't confined to one country, culture or way of life. It is a global system through which men exert power and control over women. Violence or fear of violence affects all women, everywhere.
To tackle it, we need to dig down into the root causes - the unequal power relations between women and men, and the attitudes, beliefs and behaviours which condone and promote violence. These don't change overnight, the world has been built on male privilege and patriarchal rules that keep women in their place.
Yet there's a force for change in women's lives - a group of people who are standing tall and challenging the status quo, pushing boundaries and questioning power. Women's rights organisations are the champions of the …show more content…
A survey by the Association of Women in Development in 2011 of 1,119 women's rights organisations from over 140 countries showed that only one in ten received funding from bilateral, national governments and INGOs, and only 6.9% received funding from UN Women. Funding tends to be short-term and project tied, so women's rights organisations which have their own strong visions and agendas, are often forced to follow the latest donor