Make Online Spaces Safer

31 Actions for Gender Justice: Day 12

Cyberviolence and online hate against women can have a more devastating psychological impact on victims than face-to-face interactions. Cyberviolence is often used by abusers to control women in abusive relationships or to anonymously attack women in marginalized groups and promote hate against women. Everyone deserves a life free from violence and this includes digital violence.

According to the Canadian Women’s Foundation, there has been an increase in hate crimes in Canada in recent years, which has been linked to “increasing expressions of hate in digital spaces, including those directed at women and 2SLGBTQ+ community, as well as highly targeted ethnic and religious groups”.

An online survey of 60 respondents by BWSS found that, due to cyberviolence:

• 48% of women surveyed experienced anxiety and 43% said their self-image was damaged.
• 40% reported that they withdrew from online activity.
• 30% felt shame and humiliation.
• 28% experienced isolation from friends and family.
• 13% reported “some impact on their job (losing their job, being unable to advance in job or being unable to find a new job).”
• 10% reported that they had thoughts of suicide and engaging in self-harm.
• 3.3% of women said that they had to move out of their community.

Anti-violence and violence prevention education from a young age is critical to change harmful attitudes and behaviours against women. It is especially vital in secondary schools, where the highly gendered nature of violence is often obscured by all-encompassing terminology. The term “bullying” for example, can mask sexism, racism, homophobia, and violent crimes like sexual assault.

Education must address gender inequity and emphasize the systemic and intersectional reality of oppression. By teaching young people that women are valuable, we can send the message that violence against them is unacceptable. This will make online spaces safer.

Recommended reading:

Is that legal? What the Law Says about Online Harassment and Abuse Multilingual versions available: Arabic, Chinese Traditional, Chinese Simplified, French, Punjabi, and Spanish. We all have the right to be safe online. This booklet describes four online situations you might find yourself in. We explain the laws for each one. We also say what you can do if you’re going through something similar, and where to get help.

The Facts about Online Hate and Cyberviolence Against Women and Girls in Canada, 2019. Canadian Women’s Foundation. 

Cyberviolence Against Women, 2014. Battered Women’s Support Services. 

Support BWSS

31 Actions for Gender Justice: Day 10

In 1979, a determined team of women founded Battered Women’s Support Services to advocate for gender justice and fight to end violence against women. Today, 42 years later, BWSS is still standing up for women and fighting for women’s right to live free from physical, emotional, verbal, sexual abuse.

The most pervasive form of violence against women is intimate partner violence. Many countries have reported that this form of violence has dramatically increased during COVID-19[1]. And Canada isn’t the exception.

Our staff and volunteers have answered an unprecedented number of calls and service requests during the pandemic. We work tirelessly to help women and their children flee abusive relationships and access critical services to improve the quality of their lives.

But we can’t do this work alone.

How can you help? These are a few ideas: spread the word and share information about our programs and prevention education, organize a birthday fundraiser to support our programs, shop at My Sister’s Closet, volunteer with us, donate –every dollar counts-,

With your help, BWSS can continue working on advancing gender justice by amplifying intersectional feminist voices; promoting decolonization of structures and institutions that oppress marginalized groups; eliminating all forms of violence against women; demanding justice for indigenous women and removing structural barriers to women’s economic empowerment; providing education and training about gender-based violence; supporting survivors and facilitating support groups; providing other programs to help women and their children who are experiencing or have experienced abuse.

Every day, many women turn to BWSS to seek help with creating a plan to leave abusive relationships, finding safe shelter after fleeing violence, access to legal aid, emotional support, counselling, employment.

Every day, we walk alongside women, supporting them on their healing journey, amplifying voices and resilience.

There are different ways you can join our efforts, from sharing about our work with your network to making a donation. Will you join us?

Donate: Give a gift of safety. Every dollar counts.

Volunteer: An opportunity to help women in our community and, at the same time, learn valuable skills.

Shop: My Sister’s Closet is our social enterprise. We have 2 brick-and-mortar shops and an online shop:

East Vancouver- 1830 Commercial Drive- Monday to Sunday | 11am-6pm

Downtown Vancouver- 1092 Seymour Street open for walk-ins Monday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, & Sunday | 11am-6pm

Online store: https://mysistersclosetvancouver.shop/

Follow us: Our social media

My Sister’s Closet: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter

Battered Women’s’ Support Services: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter

Learn: Browse our resource collection.

Subscribe: Sign up to receive updates

[1]Devastatingly pervasive: 1 in 3 women globally experience violence, 2021. World Health Organization (WHO) Retrieved from https://www.who.int/news/item/09-03-2021-devastatingly-pervasive-1-in-3-women-globally-experience-violence

Recommended Reading

31 Actions for Gender Justice: Day 9

In 2008, a motion to recognize February as Black History Month in Canada was unanimously approved in the Senate. But the contributions of Black people in Canada dates back to the early 17^th century when a free black person, Mathieu da Costa, arrived in what we know today as Canada.

We invite people of all backgrounds to learn about the rich history of Black people in Canada and the importance of seeing colour to understand–not to encourage prejudice-Black people’s experiences and challenges.

We recommend reading:

Making the Invisible, Visible: An Open Invitation by Theresa Thomas MCP, RCC in commemoration of February as Black History Month.

Theresa was born and raised in Houston, Texas. She is committed to helping people achieve freedom from systemic and societal oppression in every capacity. Since moving to Vancouver in 2012, she has been focused on learning the origins and impacts of trauma.

Theresa’s therapeutic focus is on trauma intervention, freedom from abuse, substance misuse, and achieving empowerment using largely narrative therapeutic techniques.

Theresa has an MCP in Counselling Psychology and is currently an STV counsellor at Battered Women’s Support Services, and coordinates the BWSS Black Women’s Program.

Black Women in Canada and Black Women’s Program at BWSS by Angela Marie MacDougall, Executive Director, BWSS.

Through her community-based organizing, frontline work, and activism over three decades, Angela Marie MacDougall has been deeply involved in movements for social justice. Since the nineties, Angela has developed training curricula from an intersectional and anti-oppression framework while her work as a trainer with community-based organizations, systems players, universities and in the larger public sphere has always emphasized the influence of a community-based response toward gender, racial, economic justice.

Angela Marie MacDougall has edited and/or written ten manuals on addressing gender-based violence and violence against women from an intersectional anti-oppression feminist framework and has spoken to hundreds of groups throughout Canada, the United States and in China. An ever-present theme and focus of her work has been the range of social inequities and environmental problems associated with colonialization and the generalized criminalization of communities of colour that are most affected by poverty and racial discrimination.

Her parents met in the Black community known as Hogan’s Alley that in the seventies was razed by Vancouver City Hall, so her work grows directly from her own experiences as a bi-racial Black woman who grew up amongst violent racist misogyny both at home, at school and in the larger community while and she became politicized to end violence against women after her high school friend was raped and murdered while on a date. She also has conducted extensive participatory action research on numerous aspects relating to gender, race, and violence.

Angela Marie MacDougall is a founding member of Feminists Deliver a provincial organization dedicated to shedding a light on the urgent issues facing marginalized communities in British Columbia and the grassroots struggles leading the way for transformative change while build transnational connections between grassroots intersectional feminist movements; and re-envisioning the global women’s agenda as one that centers a diversity of grassroots intersectional feminist voices. She is a long-standing member of Vancouver’s February 14^th Women’s Memorial March, the first women’s memorial march was held in 1992 in response to the murder of a woman in the Vancouver neighbourhood named the Downtown Eastside. Angela is a founding member of Intersectional Feminist Justice Research and Organizing Collaborative that brings together researchers, academics, data and policy analysts, students and community organizers to provide critical research, data, policy and strategic support for ending violence, gender equity and social justice movements. Ms. MacDougall was named a Remarkable Woman by the City of Vancouver and Vancouver Magazine named her one of Vancouver’s most powerful people.

IWD Action for Gender Justice

31 Actions for Gender Justice: March 8^thToday, on International Women’s Day (IWD), we celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women around the world.

We honour the courage and determination of women who came before us and women today who are working hard during the pandemic at home handling work and family responsibilities; in the healthcare system; in workplaces that provide essential services like farms, grocery stores and transportation; in not-for-profit organizations volunteering and/or providing direct services to the most vulnerable; all women in our communities helping other women and people in general.

We thank you and honour you.

At the same time, we make a call to action for gender justice, as women continue to face challenges and inequities.

Today on IWD and beyond, we invite you to:

• Dismantle oppressive structures like patriarchy, homophobia, and transphobia
• Question and resist the colonial system
• Recognize intersectionality, the existence unique forms of discrimination and oppression
• Keep fighting against misogyny, gender bias, discrimination, violence against women, and all attitudes and behaviours that oppress women.

Together, we are a force for gender justice.

Know the Signs of Domestic Abuse

31 Actions for Gender Justice: Day 7

This is by no means an exhaustive list! There’s so much more that we can do to advocate for political, economic and social changes.

March 7th Action 7. Know the Signs of Domestic Abuse

Domestic violence doesn’t always look the same. If you are experiencing abuse or you are not sure, contact BWSS:

Call: 604.687.1867 (Toll-Free 1.855.687.1868)⁠
Text: 604.652.1867 ⁠
Email: intake@bwss.org⁠

We provide a secure environment in which women are free to express themselves without being judged or threatened.

Some of the signs of domestic abuse:

Your intimate partner…

• Tells you that you never do anything right
• Criticizes your appearance
• Insults, diminishes, or shames you, especially in front of other people
• Monitors your phone, social media, computer, or car GPS
• Controls your finances, takes your money without permission, refuses to pay money loaned from you
• Blackmails you
• Is trying to isolate you from family and friends
• Twists the story when discussing something that happened in the past. You may hear: “I didn’t do that”, “I was joking”, “I didn’t push you”, “you’re crazy”, “you are lying”, “you are overreacting”, “you’re imagining things”, “you made me angry”. This is gaslighting and it’s a form of manipulation.
• Prevents you from making your own decisions
• Shows extreme jealousy of friends and family
• Pressures or forces you to have sex or perform sexual acts you’re not comfortable with
•  Threatens to leave you or take your children and/or pets
• Is verbally and/or physically abusive
• Accuses you of having an affair
• Is controlling
• Other: yells, calls you names, patronizes you, lectures you §  Belittles your accomplishments

Some signs are more obvious than other ones. Mental and emotional abuse may be harder to spot, but it certainly feels ‘like death by a thousand cuts’.

We are here to talk with you, provide emotional support, and safety plans: Support Survivors.