Understanding and Stopping Violence Against Women

United Nations Division for the Advancement of Women. 2009 The UN Secretary-General's Database on Violence against Women. http://webapps01.un.org/vawdatabase/country.action, accessed March 2010. The UN Secretary General Database on Violence against Women provides information on the laws, plans, and organizations which have been formed in different countries to end and prevent violence against women. The laws from Latin American countries such as Guatemala, Nicaragua, and El Salvador are very important to my paper. I discuss what has been done in different Latin American countries to stop and prevent domestic violence. Some of the links on this website connect to the actual laws which are very interesting to read in order to understand the details of each law, meaning what is being changed and implemented and who is responsible for helping victims.

Lancaster, Roger M. 1992 Life is Hard: Machismo, Danger, and the Intimacy of Power in Nicaragua. Berkeley: University of California Press "Life is Hard: Machismo, Danger, and the Intimacy of Power in Nicaragua" by Roger N. Lancaster discusses domestic abuse in Managua, Nicaragua. Lancaster discusses the unequal power structures that exist between genders and enforced gender norms. The machismo culture in Managua produces men who show their masculinity through violence, power, and dominance over the women in their lives. Women also have fixed gender roles of tending to their domestic chores and obeying their husbands. When women act outside of their gender roles, such as drinking, not listening to their husband, or telling their husband what to do, this is when their husband hits them in order to show that they are the men and thus they have the power. This book is important to my paper because it explains how domestic violence is culturally situated in Latin America and what cultural circumstances cause domestic violence, which in this case are gender norms including women's inequality and men's power over women.

Gaudermann, Kimberly 2003 Women's Lives in Colonia Quito: Gender, Law, and Economy in Spanish America. Texas: University of Texas Press. "Women's Lives in Colonial Quito: Gender, Law and Economy in Spanish America" by Kimberly Gaudermann provides a very important historical perspective to my paper. This book discusses how domestic violence was handled in Quito, Ecuador in the seventeenth century. Women who reported instances of domestic abuse were able to charge their husband and bring him to court. The state empowered women through giving them the ability to punish their husbands if he hit them or mishandled their money or dowry property. The state's incentive in doing this was to control the money and property involved in marriages and to ensure that no one person had more power than the state and was able to 'play' them in anyway. This book is an extremely important aspect to my paper in answering the question of why domestic violence is not created as a problem in Latin America because it shows that domestic violence was not always ignored. Rather, during the seventeenth century the state was very involved in trying to prevent domestic violence and any man who committed this crime was punished. However this is not true today where domestic abuse is created as a cultural norm and the government does not do much to enforce prevention on this matter. I think this book is important because it creates another part to my paper that is not only historic but also develops questions for why the ideas toward domestic violence have changed in Latin America and how that affects women.

Creel, Liz 2001 Domestic Violence: An Ongoing Threat to Women in Latin America and the Caribbean. Population Reference Bureau. http://www.prb.org/Articles/2001/DomesticViolenceAnOngoingThreattoWomeninLatinAmericaandtheCaribbean.aspx, accessed April 2010. This article explains how many Latin American countries do not seriously address domestic violence. Men may receive a misdemeanor instead of a felony based on the kind of injuries that a woman has, for example, if she only has bruises or does not have to stay in the hospital for a long time, than her abuser is charged with less. On top of this, police do not always follow through or even respond to reports of domestic abuse and courts and judges do not ensure adequate protective services for victims. This article is very crucial to my paper. I am looking at why domestic violence is not constructed as an issue in Latin America. This article shows that not only is domestic violence not handled as a serious issue by officials, it also demonstrates that these apathetic attitudes towards domestic abuse only increase the problem of it not being handled as a important issue and allowing for victims to believe that it is a not a worthy enough problem that they should report.

In conducting research for my final paper, which focuses on the correlation between domestic abuse and homelessness, I have gained an awareness of the urgent need for housing options for women in abusive relationships. Lack of housing is often the reason why a women chooses to stay with an abusive partner; the woman's safety is severely compromised due to a preventable problem. DASH's Empowerment initiative aims to provide women with safe transitional housing and support. For a scared woman who is contemplating leaving her abusive partner, the knowlege of a supportive organization, such as DASH, could be just the push she needs to escape. Though this organization is in the D.C area, I believe it is essential that such organizations are spread throughout the country.

First of all, I think this is such a great topic for a research paper and I am looking forward to see what conclusions you can reach from this correlation. I think people often overlook that empowerment cannot only come in the form of education to women, the importance of tangible empowerment like immediate housing is crucial to actually empower a woman to be able to leave an abusive situation. I especially thought the tools+trainig section of the site was an important resource since it describes how this organization goes about providing for help in housing and at the different levels (community based, government help etc.)

As I mentioned in my earlier post, domestic abuse is the leading cause of homelessness in the United States. Women who go to shelters are tended to, but this article causes me to wonder how much attention and support their children are receiving. Domestic abuse and homelessness can have catastrophic effects on children, including behavioral problems, poor nutrition and severe emotional stress. This leads me to believe that there needs to be more programs in schools and shelters that focus on offsetting the traumatic effects on children of violence in the home.

"V-Day is a catalyst that promotes creative events to increase awareness, raise money and revitalize the spirit of existing anti-violence organizations. V-Day generates broader attention for the fight to stop violence against women and girls, including rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation (FGM) and sexual slavery." V-Day is a movement started by Eve Ensler. This organization promotes awareness and education through performance as well as carries out campaigns worldwide. Their purpose is to generate media coverage and instigate dialogues especially with the younger demographic. This way they have been making an impact and contributing to end violence against women and girls.

"The simple statement, 'I Am an Emotional Creature,' becomes a challenge to the myriad ways in which girls are looked at but not seen, talked about but not listened to, used, discarded, violated, exploited, maimed, and at the extreme killed. Like a woman claiming her body, a girl claiming her emotions breaks a silence and unleashes a vast resource of clean energy, an energy that can inspire all of us to transform and heal the world."-Foreword Excerpt This new book is part of a bigger movement that seeks to end violence against women worldwide. This book is from the same author of the Vagina Monologues and seeks to raise awareness on the current state of the lives of girls and the, sometimes horrific, experiences girls around the world have growing up. I bookmarked this book's site because this book is one of many creative ways in which people are seeking to contribute to solving the problem of violence against women. By writting this book she is appealing to masses of girls that are more prone to reading this book than doing research on the phenomena of Femicides. It is reaching out to a different demographic and empowering them by raising awareness on this issue.

This is a horrific story that exemplifies one of the many different forms of femicide that exists throughout the world. The child marriage that commonly occurs in Yemen is motivated by dowry payment; the young girls' lives are continually jeopardized for monetary gain. Though the minimum marriage age was changed to 17 in 2009, it was repealed due to conservative pressure, further proving that social change often cannot happen without men's approval. This needs to be changed.

This story is horrendous. I often find it difficult to critique other cultural practices that are not my own because I do not want to be insensitive to their traditions and customs. However, when it comes to child welfare laws I am always disgusted that such antiquated practices are permitted in contemporary times. It's ironic because some may even view this child bride as a child who was a victim of legalized rape and made to live with her rapist/murderer. I wish there was more information regarding such practices because than I could make a stronger argument.

This story brings me back to the Economist article link i bookmarked on Gendercide today. I think the Economist makes a great overview of the problem using examples from China and India,but I think it would be interesting to add Yemen to the mix, since this is such a recent ocurrence that exemplifies the current world crisis. In China they kill baby girls who are born to have a chance at having a boy, because having a girl means that she is only good to be married off and you need a dowry for that. In Yemen, the problem is not that they are killed at birth or before birth, but that they are being married off underage and become victims of violence and in this case of murder as a result of the violence.

This website provides critical information for Spanish speaking women in the United States. It provides various statistics from the CDC and the HHS. It also creates a list of situations which may indicate if you are a victim of abuse or not. Although this site is in Spanish I believe that it is a useful in order to analyze what Latina women are being offered in terms of services.

I agree with Jennifer. I think the fact that this site is in Spanish is a great thing, since it is known that Latinas are high on the list as victims of violent acts. One important thing to note for the purpsoses of our class and our Diigo group is how all this information we have bookmarked reaches its audience. That is how this helps people understand the issue as well as the victims of the problem. It is important to have this information be accesible to all communities. By using spanish on this site they are reaching a whole other audience that might not have access to other resources on violence against women because of a language barrier.

This speech given by Secretary of State Hilary Rodham Clinton goes into how activism on behalf of violence against women has changed in the past few years. She explains that progress has been made, but that it needs to continue. This helps to attract global attention to the problem of violence against women. This is related to our class because it shows how action can have an effect on violence against women, and how changes in the future are necessary and can be made possible.

Global attraction to this issue of violence against women is pertinent in working towards solving it. This issue is usually in places were impunity rules over the perpetrators. The steps taken by global actors such as the United States in taking a stand against violence against women,and being proactive in implementing legislation to end it works to promote taking action on this issue. However, it is also important to note the areas were there is still work to be done as Hilary Clinton expresses.

Desai, Sapna. 2005. "HIV and Domestic Violence: Intersections in the Lives of Married Women in India." Health and Human Rights 8(2, Emerging Issues in HIV/AIDS):140-168. This article is important because it looks at another culture, where HIV/AIDS is spread through marital rape. This is important because acquaintance rape, and rape by random people are not the only types there are, but they are frequently the only ones that are talked about. This article explores how women have no control over their sexuality and bodies, and are forced into sex with their husbands, thus leading them to contract HIV. This will help to add an angle to the paper on marital rape.

This is an important source because it gives information on women who are affected by HIV/AIDS in the world, and is an easily accessible site for people around the world who have access to the internet. It not only gives important information on where to get help and what to do, but it also gives some information on other countries, adding yet another global perspective. More importantly, it focuses on the effects that can occur from being infected with HIV/AIDS. This is important to know in order to understand the effects on quality of life that HIV can have.

"Encyclopedia of Rape. ed. Merril D. Smith. 2004. :xxvii,-301 p. This book, and specifically pages 97 and 98, explain how HIV/AIDS is transmitted through rape. Although this is a short piece, just two pages, they are very important as they are from an encyclopedia that focuses on rape, and can give a very strong explanation of the general ways that HIV/AIDS is transmitted through rape. The explanation also talks about how it is not just women who are infected with HIV from rape, but the paper will focus on how women are affected by HIV from rape.

Kim, Julia C., Lorna J. Martin and Lynette Denny. 2003. "Rape and HIV Post-Exposure Prophylaxis: Addressing the Dual Epidemics in South Africa." Reproductive Health Matters 11(22, HIV/AIDS, Sexual and Reproductive Health: Intimately Related):101-112. This article is very important for my paper because it looks at the way that the South African government deals with post-exposure prophylaxis. This is important for this paper because it looks at one way that rape and HIV are linked. The link between rape and HIV, especially in South Africa is key to the paper because it constitutes a major risk of rape, especially in South Africa. Additionally, it argues that there is a very strong link between sexual violence against women and the spread of HIV.

McDonnell, Karen A., Andrea C. Gielen, Patricia O'Campo and Jessica G. Burke. 2005. "Abuse, HIV Status and Health-Related Quality of Life among a Sample of HIV Positive and HIV Negative Low Income Women." Quality of Life Research 14(4):945-957. This article is important because it looks at how a person's quality of life is affected by HIV and intimate partner violence. This helps to address the question of my paper (how rape and HIV status are related) in that it looks at how rape and HIV can affect a woman's quality of life. The quality of life argument is very important because it will add a more personal, and less academic look at HIV and IPV. This will add a perspective to my paper that an article merely focusing on the spread of HIV through rape cannot.

Gostin, Lawrence O., Zita Lazzarini, Diane Alexander, Allan M. Brandt, Kenneth H. Mayer and Daniel C. Silverman. 1995. "HIV Testing, Counselling and Prophylaxis Following Sexual Assault." Reproductive Health Matters 3(5, Pregnancy, Birth Control, STDs and AIDS: Promoting Safer Sex):104-116. This article is important because it looks at how HIV and rape are related in the US. It also looks at prophylaxis like another source on prophylaxis in South Africa. This is very important because it will help to give the paper a more cross-cultural approach. It argues that not enough attention has been paid to the transmission of HIV during rape because in the US the transmission rate is lower, and is thought of as lower. However, looking at the effects of the transmission in the US is just as important as looking at it in South Africa to give it a more global perspective.

Watts, Charlotte., Zimmerman, Cathy. 2002. "Violence against women: global scope and magnitude." The Lancet 359:1232-1237 * This article does not directly deal with pornography, but merely touches upon it. I kept this article because it provides a lot of information about violence against women around the world. It provides the basis for my knowledge on violence in general and touches upon many different reasons for the violence. What helps me particular within my research is that it provides a global perspective on the violence which I hadn't been able to find in other research.