SAN DIEGO— Violence against women has been accepted as a serious social problem, affecting women from both developed and developing countries. But it has only been in the last few decades that violence against women has been increasingly recognized as a public health problem.
In the late 20th century, as countries waged war against infectious diseases with medicine and vaccinations, death by violent acts—such as homicide and suicide—rose as leading causes of death. The U.S. Surgeon General’s report “Health People 2000,” published in 1980 was one of the first publications to identify violence as a major public health concern.
As smallpox, measles, yellow fever and polio have been largely erradicated in most developed countries through modern medicine, violence can also be potentially subdued through similar public health policies. When violence is treated as a public health problem, it can be “studied, understood and prevented,” and not labeled as an unavoidable occurrence that is untreatable.
Violence against women varies across and within countries. “Every year at least 1 million women will require emergency department care as a result of ongoing battering, 1 million will be stalked, about 500,000 will be raped or sexually assaulted and an estimated 2 to 4 million will be physically assaulted by partners, relatives, acquaintances and strangers.”
Violence against women has huge social, economic and health impacts. In 2002, the World Health Organization published the World Report on Violence and Health, which stated: “Violence represents a crucial violation of women’s rights as human beings. The presence of violence is incompatible with the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health.”
Violence against women is, both directly and indirectly, a source and consequence of poverty. In “The Locust Effect,” Gary A. Haugen and Victor Boutros question “How can we achieve development if the work we do to ensure education, health and economic empowerment is impaired and held back by this plague of violence?”
In developing countries, many women live in constant fear of being raped, assaulted, exploited and killed. To them, violence is a part of every day life. But the reasons why they are so vulnerable to violence are because they live in poverty and are not protected by their societies and their justice systems.
Poverty prevents women from assuming control over their own bodies, accessing social services, reaching positions of authority and claiming their rights. Violence, or the threat of violence, keeps women and girls from achieving their full potential, from attending schools and from improving the well-being of themselves and their families.
Thus, it is impossible to eradicate poverty without ending violence.
Preventing violence against women has many documented benefits. The woman herself experiences improved mental and physical health, while her children and society will also reap the benefits in the long term. By approaching violence against women as a global public health problem, countries can better understand the nature of this pandemic to seek preventative measures. For sustainable development and the eradication of poverty, violence against women must be eliminated.
Sources: CDC, Girls Globe, Huffington Post, NCJRS, NCSMC
Photo: The Baltimore Sun