Together To End Violence Against Women

MONTREAL - March 2, 2014 - PRLog -- Every year, March 8th is a time to remember the greatness of women worldwide, a time to celebrate their achievements, their courage and their determination in what seems to be a never ending struggle for equality. In this time and age, as many battles have been won and as women feel more empowered than ever, we are sadly still faced with a grim reality. According to a recent report by the World Health Organization (WHO), violence perpetrated against women remains a major public health scourge across the planet affecting an estimated 35% of the world's female population.

Violence against women is a collective term that refers to any violent act that is committed primarily against women such as human trafficking, rape, sexual harassment, forced marriages or abortions and honour killings to name just a few. In some communities, particularly in Africa and Asia, such crimes go unreported, unpunished and are even trivialized as a result of an engrained societal inequality between genders. In other cultures, where some progress against the established patriarchal order has been made, emancipated women often become targets of violence expressly for what they represent, in a vile and vicious attempt to discourage further feminist progression. More shockingly, even the most advanced societies in the world today do not serve as examples of true gender equality highlighting the fact that violence against women really is a worldwide problem.

In the United States for instance, statistics show that a staggering 18% (almost one in five) of women have experienced a complete or attempted rape during their lifetime and over half of these women were minors at the time. American women also experience over three times more intimate partner violence than men and are twice as likely to suffer injuries from physical assaults. A similar scenario arises in Canada, where 1 in 2 women report having experienced physical or sexual violence in their lifetime, with young women being 11 times more likely than their male counterparts to be victims of sexual offences. On average, more than 3000 Canadian women seek refuge in shelters on any given night and some 400 are turned down due to lack of space. As the numbers above are based mostly on self reports, one may very well imagine that actual figures are substantially higher.

Fortunately, this issue has received attention from numerous charitable organizations over the years and more lately from the private sector as well. The cosmetic industry is no exception and some corporations have chosen to take concrete action. The most recent example is Vita Aeterna Cosmetics, a skin care company based in Montreal, Canada, that will dedicate this year's March 8th week-end to ending violence against women. The company will host a three day event during which 35 % of proceeds will be pledged to End Violence Against Women International (EVAWI). This figure is no doubt symbolic of the latest WHO report since, according to the company, "True gender equality will not be achieved unless every negative statistic is met with an equally positive one." The event will run from Friday March 7th through Monday March 10th and all the details can be found at http://www.vitaaeternacosmetics.com/evaw.

With this year's International Women's Day just around the corner, everyone is invited to take a moment to reflect on the condition of today's women and to spread a message of unity and equality. Always remember that women truly are more than women, they are mothers, they are sisters, they are wives, they are us.