Rise of Domestic Violence During the Covid 19 Pandemic - Essay Sample

In several nations across the globe, stay-at-home directives were placed in place as Covid-19 incidents escalated. Schools shut down, and several employees were relieved of duty, laid off, or forced to work at home. With restricted personal movement and individuals restricted to their houses, activists raised concerns about a possible rise in domestic violence. Stay-at-home orders have left much violence with intimate partner victims stuck with their offenders, designed to protect the public and avoid widespread contamination. As states adopted these measures, domestic-violence hotlines planned a rise in prices for services, but several agencies encountered the reverse. The number of calls fell by more than 50 percent in some areas. Violence with intimate partners is experienced by 1 in 4 women and 1 in 10 men, and abuse may take various forms: physical, mental, sexual harassment. This paper will discuss how violence against women can still be eliminated by establishing links in the ability of women's association resources because insufficient funds create stress and tension among families and also make women over-reliant on their husbands.

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For various causes and under varying conditions, women have suffered abuse from their partners over the years. One out of three women worldwide encounters abuse from her partner, according to UN Women (Malathesh, 2020). The COVID-19 epidemic has seen the proliferation of different data and studies, showing all types of violence against women and girls, more so domestic violence. Domestic violence during the COVID-19 pandemic has been described as a shadow pandemic. The need to resolve the problem of violence against women is made necessary because women are fundamentally the foundations of the family unit. Besides, sociologists consider the family system to be the cornerstone of every healthy society. Therefore, where any violence or some other form of abuse is influenced by this critical institution, the outcome can be seen in different institutions in the world. Abuse towards women in these situations undermines the unity of the family institution and the family institution and, by extension, those of the country.

From a feminist viewpoint, the more socially empowered a woman is, the less vulnerable to the violence she would be. For example, most women abused by their husbands are not aware of their legal rights and do not have the requisite funds to hire a lawyer to inform them about those rights. However, when such women's income is improved, they can still seek legal services and obtain equitable remedies, such as divorce and child custody. According to Dr. Carol Pateman, wealth redistribution guarantees gender equality and eliminates all types of male abuse against women (Jacqueline, 2020). If this claim is critically tested, then there is a need to empower men economically as well because a good number of cases of violence are caused by the inability of the man to provide for the family (Malathesh et al., 2020). The Canadian Women Foundation has suggested more money to help victims of domestic abuse, as most organizations providing such programs are already spreading their capacity too thinly (Nicole, 2020). Currently, most nations have diverted their resources and attention to solving the COVID-19 pandemic and have forgotten the shadow pandemic of domestic violence against women. Dr. Carol claims that basic income should be given to people and not to households. This would allow women the financial power to avoid unsafe situations such as domestic violence (Jacqueline, 2020). She encourages the feminist in her quest for women's equality to factor in the concept of basic income. Furthermore, Dr. Carol claims that feminists play a significant role in theorizing the notion of basic pay by tailoring the discussion to illustrate the plight of women specifically. To provide clarity on domestic violence and how best to resolve the situation, this paper proposes a series of different courses for different stakeholders.

Annotated bibliography

Mahesh, Barikar C., Soumitra Das, and Seshadri Sekhar Chatterjee. "COVID-19 and domestic violence against women." Asian journal of psychiatry (2020).

In this source, the authors have demonstrated how the COVID-19 pandemic has ended up creating another pandemic of increased violence against women. They have cited the fact that as the governments focus their resources and time in combating the COVID-19, the issue of domestic violence has been ignored to the detriment of the women. Even as the world focuses on how to combat COVID-19 immediately, the authors have advised that there is also a need to consider the near-future and long-term ramifications that the pandemic will have on the safety of women. The hashtag #antidomesticviolenceduringpandemic has been searched for more than three thousand times, a clear indicator of the alarming number of incidences of violence against women worldwide. Domestic violence during the lockdown situation has been caused by several factors but most predominantly, economic reasons. While the males feel less in control when they cannot fend for their families and therefore resort to violence to exert control, unemployed women become dependent on their perpetrators and can consequently not run away in case of abuse. The authors of this source have established the relationship between domestic violence and the economic circumstances of the day, making it useful for further research.

Jacqueline Gullion, Why feminists need to take up a basic income in their fight for women’s liberation: An interview with Carole Pateman(2020).

Through Dr. Carole's interview, this source has dissected the concept of basic income and consequently demonstrated how it would help resolve the menace of domestic violence. Dr. Carole advises the feminists to treat a basic income vital component of women’s liberation. From her reasoning, a woman should get the necessary financial independence not to be tied to her abuser merely because he is the provider of her needs. She calls on the feminists to take an active role in introducing the gender dimension to the debate on basic income as this is the only way to ensure that the women are not once again co-opted by their male counterparts. This interview will help draft the policy brief since it correctly highlights those aspects of gender-based violence that need to be given attention.

Nicole Bogart, Advocates, scrambles to help domestic abuse victims as calls skyrocket during COVID-19(2020).

The authors argue that domestic violence has been escalated by the isolation policy that has been put in place by the government to curb the COVID-19 pandemic. Isolation has made the victims more exposed to their abusers hence the increased violence cases in the homes. Most of the rapid response institutions have been overwhelmed and are calling for intervention by the state. According to the research done in early April this year by Statistics Data Survey, one out of ten women are fearful of the possibility of violence during the pandemic. The perpetrators have taken advantage of the fact that most women cannot access the internet, which provides emotional support, legal advices, and safety planning to oppress them. This material will be useful in my work since it clarifies the causes of domestic violence in Canada.

Statistics Canada: “The COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts on Canadian victim services"(2020).

This source illustrates an increase in cases of violence against women by both data analysis and circumstantial interpretation. Seventy-six percent of domestic violence victims' services and resources constrain as the biggest hindrance to assisting women who had fallen victims to domestic violence. For instance, getting them food, medication, and shelter have become more challenging. Besides, 30 percent of the support institutions reported that they could not easily access the courts and the prosecutors since the judiciary had scaled-down its operations. The statistics show that the overall number of violence cases against women increased from 31 to 50 percent.

In this circumstance, this source puts the issue of resources at the center-stage of violence against women. It also explains the increase in abuse cases by demonstrating that the relevant organizations have their resource capacities overwhelmed.

References

Jacqueline Gullion, Why feminists need to take up a basic income in their fight for women’s liberation: An interview with Carole Pateman(2020). https://www.feministcurrent.com/2018/08/15/feminists-need-take-basic-income-fight-womens-liberation-interview-carole-pateman/

Malathesh, Barikar C., Soumitra Das, and Seshadri Sekhar Chatterjee. "COVID-19 and domestic violence against women." Asian journal of psychiatry (2020).

Nicole Bogart. Advocates scramble to help domestic abuse victims as calls skyrocket during COVID-19(2020). https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/advocates-scramble-to-help-domestic-abuse-victims-as-calls-skyrocket-during-covid-19-1.4923109

Statistics Canada: “The COVID-19 pandemic and its impacts on Canadian victim services"(2020)https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/45-28-0001/2020001/article/00065-eng.htm