DOMESTIC VIOLENCE IS GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE
November is Domestic Violence Awareness Month in Manitoba. Intimate-partner violence and family violence are disproportionately experienced by women, trans, Two-Spirit, and gender non-conforming people. Therefore, this month we are thinking more broadly about all forms of gender-based violence.
Gender-based violence is the result of misogynist, transphobic and homophobic beliefs that result in bodies being devalued, sexualized, commodified, and exploited. Gender-based violence is also rooted in patriarchal and colonial power imbalances that result in gender inequality, systemic oppression and marginalization of identities, and culture-related gender norms based in control and violence. While men can experience gender-based violence, it is almost exclusively committed by men against people of a different gender.
24-HOUR SAFE SPACE
As found in Connecting the Circle: A Gender-Based Strategy to End Homelessness in Winnipeg, women, trans, Two-Spirit, and gender non-conforming people are caught between ineligibility for family violence shelters and safety issues in homeless shelters. They often have nowhere else to go that they consider to be safe. They are calling for low barrier access to dedicated gendered safe spaces that offer gender-based violence supports, regardless of who perpetrated the violence or where the violence took place.
To address domestic and gender-based violence in general, women, trans, Two-Spirit, and gender non-conforming people need access to a safe space open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Statistics
Women are at a 20% higher risk of violent victimization than men.
Indigenous women are killed at six times the rate of non-Indigenous women.
Every 6 days a woman in Canada is killed by her intimate partner.
Women are about four times as likely as men to be victims of intimate partner homicide.
Manitoba has highest domestic violence homicide rates among the provinces.
Manitoba’s rate of violence against women is double the national rate.
Trans women are twice as likely as cis-gender women to experience intimate partner violence.
Newcomer women face language and cultural barriers to getting support after experiencing domestic violence.
70% of spousal violence is not reported to the police.