The Endemic Of Gender-Based Violence And Femicide In Ireland
By Atakan Uzun
Domestic violence is an endemic issue worldwide, not least in Ireland. However, it is predominantly women who are affected by domestic violence, most notably through gender-based violence and femicide. Ireland’s figures that account for the abuse of women through domestic violence, gender-based violence, and femicide make for stark reading. Domestic violence can have a profoundly negative impact upon women in a number of different ways. It can increase the number of women which are forced into homelessness as they face the unfortunate reality of leaving an abusive relationship.
Between 2015 and 2019, according to Focus Ireland, a 158% rise in women’s homelessness was present, while the National Women’s Council of Ireland found that 92% of homeless women in a FEANTSA European study had gone through some form of violence or abuse throughout their lives. This was further compounded by the lack of women’s refuges. In 2018, SAFE Ireland found that on 3,256 occasions, women and children were not located in refuge spaces because the “refuge was either full or there was no refuge in their areas”. Given the lack of women’s refuge spaces for victims of domestic abuse across the country, whilst many of them are likely to be on low incomes, they are without any option but to become homeless.
Domestic violence can also have a knock-on impact on other innocent bystanders of the family, especially children. Accordant with a TUSLA report in 2015, over 40% of cases have been associated with the domestic abuse of children, alongside women, either physically or sexually. In many cases, the usage of domestic violence by perpetrators can also result in fatalities. The number of deaths caused by domestic violence against women which results in femicide are harrowing. According to the publication of the Femicide Watch Report of Women’s Aid in December 2022, 252 deaths have been recorded between 1996-2022 by femicide, which is generally considered to be the “killing of women and girls by men”. 63% of the murdered women were killed in their own homes, whilst 87% of women, where cases have been resolved, and the perpetrator punished, were murdered by a man that was known to them. Even more harrowing was that women under the age of 35 made up 50% of the femicide cases in Ireland. In many of these incidences, children were also fatally impacted. In cases where the perpetrator was held to account, 20 children died violently in incidents, where women also died. These figures highlight and illustrate the need for profound societal change to be brought about throughout the country. So, what can be done?
Evidenced by the accompanying sentence, many would argue that it must start with societal change. And that means, people, especially men, standing up and being counted in the fight against gender-based violence and all forms of discrimination against women, including sexism. The crucial starting point involves the latter. Replicating the approach taught by the UCC Bystander Intervention Programme, men can start by calling out any misogynistic or stereotypical comments that are directed in a derogatory manner towards women, whether in the workplace, in a social setting, or in general society. Whether these comments are directed by their peers, such as their friends or family, the growth in the number of men calling out such sexist or misogynistic comments will end the normalisation of lad culture and toxic masculinity.
In some cases, especially outside the home, where evidence of domestic violence against women is present, men can also call out such abuse. Like racism, the greater the number of people that stand up to call out all forms of discrimination and abuse against women, the more likely that these toxic attitudes no longer become accepted in society. In some situations, it only takes one person to operate outside of existing norms amongst peers to call out such rhetoric. However, this is only the starting point for ending lad culture. If we are to end lad culture in Irish society, men also need to look at their own gendered attitudes to their place in society. Recently, research obtained by SAFE Ireland concluded that up to 27% of men between the age of 16-25 believe that the head of the household should be acted upon by men, whilst 20% that were surveyed thought that men should be the ones earning the most money in the household. Whilst in the minority, these staggering figures highlight the continuing existence of support for traditional norms of society. While the approaches of men calling out sexist attitudes and looking at their own gendered attitude to their place in society will not end gender-based violence, it certainly has a role to play in bringing about the societal change needed.
In cohesion with the above changes, education is essential, especially for younger men, to end the formation of existing attitudes towards women that see them as objects rather than ordinary humans which should be allowed to freely function in society without fear of abuse, either physically, verbally, or sexually. This will require change to be led by the Government to prevent the conditions to form for domestic violence against women to take place, and education to prevent these conditions from forming should start from a young age. The latest Government’s Zero Tolerance strategy on gender-based violence commits to tackling domestic, sexual, and gender-based violence. At an educational level, the Government promised to update the primary and secondary school curricula to “include consent, coercive control, domestic violence and safe use of the internet”. Through prevention, this will be done by establishing a number of awareness campaigns to focus on prevalent attitudes among boys and men. In third level education, under the Government’s strategy, the Government indicated that it would roll-out the foundation of an online hub on sexual violence and harassment across the higher education sector.
The Government could take inspiration from the ideas espoused under the UCC Bystander Intervention Programme, which has been rolled out in 70 secondary schools across the country, and expand it to every school, both primary and secondary, nationwide. The reforming of the current education system to include teachings about areas such as domestic violence and consent, in conjunction with the Bystander Intervention Programme rolled out in UCC to primary and secondary schools would arguably have the potential to bring about unprecedented generational change at a younger level in Irish society, and that is to no longer accept any form of domestic violence against women in society. On many moral issues such as Marriage Equality, young people were the generation to lead change. And by not tolerating all forms of domestic abuse against women, they can be the generation that irons out domestic abuse, and leads a society that champions equality and opposes discrimination.
Legal change is also needed. Legally, as promised by the Government under its strategy to tackle gender-based violence, harsher sentences will need to be introduced for perpetrators of domestic abuse against women to support the adoption of a zero-tolerance approach to domestic violence of all forms. It remains to be seen whether the commitments under this strategy will be met, going forward. Nevertheless, the current Government, under the watchful eye of generations of women across the country, will be hoping that they meet their own commitments to tackle gender-based violence to bring the promised societal change that is needed to honour the many women who have either died or suffered physically or emotionally, as a result of domestic abuse, and prevent domestic violence from continuing to stain this country. As we have recently reached the one-year anniversary of the brutal murder of Ashling Murphy, and received news of the killing of Bruna Fonseca on New Year’s Day, these events continue to be commonplace in Irish society. Unless societal, educational, governmental, and legal change is brought about, more female lives will be taken and impacted by gender-based violence. It is in everyone’s interest for all forms of domestic violence to end. Let’s hope 2023 can be the beginning of this process.