Cyber-Violence Against Women

Recognizing and Resisting Gender Violence in the Online Environment

Seeing an emergence of cyber-violence against women both as a weapon against women and an environment where women are made to feel unsafe, Battered Women’s Support Services dug deeper to develop our analysis of this type of violence. We initiated Cyber-Violence Against Women:  Recognizing and Resisting Gender Violence in the Online Environment research project to determine:

  1.  in what ways women are experiencing cyber-violence against women,
  2. how this type of violence impacts women’s lives,
  3. how women resist and fight back against this type of violence and
  4. how the community responds to women who experience cyber-violence.

“As information and communication technologies continue to advance, it has become easier and faster for us to communicate with one another, to distribute ideas and information and to make connections with people that transcend geographic and spatial boundaries. What we have noticed at Battered Women’s Support Services is that as use of information and communication technologies has become more ubiquitous, the use of these technologies as a weapon against women has also become ubiquitous.

Not only that, but internet and social media has also become an environment where women are made to feel unsafe and are threatened. Violence against women is being committed through the use of media such as texting, email, Facebook, Twitter, Craigslist, LinkedIn, YouTube and just about any other internet or social media platform you can think of. We have decided to term this type of violence, cyber-violence against women.” – Jessica  West, Researcher of Cyber-Violence Against Women Report.

In today’s world, we are not only living in a physical environment, many of us live significant portions of our lives online. As with any environment, the online environment can expose women to behaviours that are meant to humiliate, shame, or silence women with devastating consequences as evidenced by the experiences and deaths of Amanda Todd, Rehtaeh Parsons, Audrie Pott.   

Today, the parents of Rehtaeh Parsons, Amanda Todd, and Jamie Hubley met with Canadian Members of Parliament, Commons Justice Committee to give their views on Bill C-13.    Bill C-13, Protecting Canadians from Online Crime Act, proposes to criminalize the non-consensual distribution of intimate images online. This bill is delivered to the Canadian public after an onslaught of experiences of cyber-bullying and gender violence, particularly amongst the youth population.

While this effort may have positive impact and provide criminal legal remedy, the Bill fails to recognizes many root causes of gender-based violence and sexual harassment in online environment. It is critically important to make the link between cyber-bullying, online gender violence and the spectrum of violence against women in physical environment to address the problem and find solutions.

Through Cyber-Violence Against Women:  Recognizing and Resisting Gender Violence in the Online Environment Battered Women’s Support Services makes visible the very real way girls and women are impacted and how girls and women resist.  We hope this will further our collective understanding of what cyber-violence against women is, and that it will be the beginning of a conversation about what needs to change, in both society and in policy to end cyber-violence against women.

Read our Cyber-Violence Against Women prepared by Jessica West here and please share widely.

CyberVAWReportJessicaWest-page-001

 If you could do something to end violence against girls and women, wouldn’t you?

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Cyber Bullying as Gender-based Violence

Power and Control in Online Environment

Advances in technology and social media platforms have brought many opportunities for us to share our voices and interact with each other beyond physical space. At the same time though it has also resulted in online platforms being used for sexual violence to attack, humiliate, shame, silence and publicly expose women and girls. Those attacks have real and devastating consequences. In the last year alone, our society failed Amanda Todd, Rehtaeh Parsons, Audrie Pott as a result of cyber gender-based violence.

We live in a society that is hierarchical, structured based on various factors such as gender, race, sexual orientation to name a few, that reproduces and exerts power and control over women in different forms and it clearly shows its face in our current online environment.

To shift the culture of violence, Battered Women’s Support Services is conducting a research project to reveal and critically analyze cyber gender-based violence women and girls are experiencing.

We want to hear from women about their experience(s) of violence and/or abuse in the online world. Revealing and sharing our experiences, will help us at BWSS to understand the impact of such violence on women’s lives, the ways women fight back, and how the community responds. It is vital to develop an analysis of why this type of violence against women and girls is happening and what needs to be done to stop it.

We invite you to share your experiences and insights by completing this survey. Your responses will remain anonymous and your personal information will be kept confidential. The information we gather from the survey will be compiled in a report that will further our collective understanding of gendered violence and social media.

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