Violence Against Women

The EIS has launched new advice designed to support union members at all levels in understanding the issue of violence against women.

Violence against women (VAW) is used to refer to a range of actions that harm, or cause suffering and indignity to, women and children.

VAW is both a cause and a consequence of women’s wider societal inequality. This includes economic inequality (the pay, income and pensions gap between men and women); political inequality (women’s under-representation and men’s over-representation in decision making structures); and social inequality (women’s experience of unfair treatment in various ways including objectification and stereotyping).

The umbrella term ‘violence against women’ includes commonly known forms such as domestic abuse, rape and sexual violence, but there are many other forms of violence that predominantly affect women and girls. These include but are not limited to:

• physical, sexual and psychological violence in the family, the general community or institutions, which includes domestic abuse, rape, incest and child sexual abuse
• sexual harassment and intimidation at work and in public
• commercial sexual exploitation, including prostitution, pornography and trafficking
• so called 'honour based' violence, including dowry-related violence, female genital mutilation, forced and child marriages and 'honour' crimes.

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