Email

Print

The survey respondents which included domestics and teachers between 18 and 86 years old revealed the experience, thoughts, conditions and the circumstances that lead to violence. The Women's Circle today shared some of the observations of the survey:

Sheila Guiseppi, Member of Women's Circle
"They observed that a lot of women think it's only abuse when they are beaten physically. If he rails up with her they don't see that as abuse so there are many women living in situations where there is a lot of psychological abuse but they don't see it as a problem because they've not been beaten by a man ."

Joyce Flowers, Founding Member and Treasurer - Women's Circle
"As soon as you say violence against women they think domestic violence, so we try to educate them again to tell them that violence against women includes all the others - sexual harassment in the workplace, rape, abuse be it sexual or whatever, even mental abuse or physical abuse - they all come under the one heading of violence against women, so we just try to educate them about it."

Irene Buddan, Member of Women's Circle
"The third observation is that people don't want to say it happened to them, its easier to say that it happened to someone they know. We interviewed one woman who we knew had been a victim of rape but when we asked her about sexual violence, she said she knew someone it had happened to. People are still scared to come forward."

Joyce Flowers, Founding Member and Treasurer - Women's Circle
"We have educational sessions, development sessions and so on trying to encourage these women to come to the sessions so that they can lift their self esteem because we find a lot of them feel like they can't do anything to help themselves so that is one of the first things we want to do. We also want to develop their knowledge so that they know how to go about with our support in improving their lives and those of their families."

Lorna Moody, Member of Women's Circle
"The fourth observation we made was that women who felt they are dependent on a man often believed that they have no other choice but to live with violence and abuse. A woman said 'what else can I do? I have to eat, I have to drink' women sometimes trade themselves for a living, they trade sex for a living and some men wont maintain their children unless the woman have sex with him."

Debra Lewis, Member of Women's Circle
"We are going to be looking at what needs to be done to give more support to the women because I think that when women say there is nothing that can be done, I think it's in recognition of all the barriers that women face in order to try to break free of abusive relationships. I think its not true that nothing is being done, we know for example that the women's department has been very active in trying to do something specific around domestic violence but I think it so overwhelming when you are in that situation that it is very difficult to take a first step. We also know that there needs to be much more done particularly for example in the area of providing some kind of economic activity for women who are in situations of domestic abuse so that we want first of all provide a place for women where they can come where they will feel safe to talk about their situation because that was definitely another thing that came out the survey that women don't want to tell whether its domestic violence, rapes, sexual assault or sexual abuse. Women don't want to talk about it because they are afraid of what other people will say. There is still that enormous sense of shame that's involved when you are a victim which is completely not the way things should be. It should be if you are the perpetrator, yes you should feel shame, but you are the victim, it shouldn't be a shameful thing. So as a community of women organization we need to show women that we can provide you with the safe place first of all and then we can help you kind of problem solve to find out where you can go from there, what can you do for your own situation? So it's kind of a 2 prong attack, on the one hand providing that safe space for women so that they can and get support for women and on the other hand identifying those things that we really need to push for in terms of getting more support and more alternatives for women who are victims of violence."

"E cud happen to any a wi" will be distributed across the country in libraries, schools and other institutions. In addition to this report, the organization is also working on another publication that will be complemented with graphics to use for public education. The group says it will also conduct a similar survey in the north-side of the city. The Women's Circle, made up of some twenty members, meets every Tuesday at 5:30p.m at the St. Martin's Child Care Centre.