gender equality - roots.utopia.sk

Gender equality and gender-based violence

Emancipatory struggles are also struggles for gender equality and against gender-based violence. These are often obstacles to women's emancipation, but not only to theirs. The first step in the struggle against them is our ability to identify them when we encounter them. As with discrimination, this may not seem so difficult at first sight. However, practice clearly shows us that this is not the case: we have also met women who identified gender-based violence in their lives only after they had attended a training session where it was discussed. In emancipatory struggles, this phenomenon can be encountered regularly. People cannot identify different forms of oppression, discrimination and violence. We may ask how it is possible that the population of a democratic country does not have these basic democratic skills. At the same time, however, we can do something to ensure that as many people as possible acquire them.

Activists of ÚRMC and experts of the association Možnosť voľby during a training on gender equality and gender-based violence.

It is not for nothing they say that knowledge is power. It helps us to gain more control over our own lives and to better understand the contexts in which they take place. It enables us to make better choices and to be more likely to reach the goals we set for ourselves. That is why it is denied to people by various authoritarians.

As part of our project, together with the ÚRMC, we approached the association Možnosť voľby which has been working on gender equality for many years. During the training, the participants had the opportunity to find out what forms this violence takes and how to defend themselves against it. Some of the questions we discussed together can also be found in our publication Violence against women affects us all.

Translated by deepl.com. Not edited.