Many women who call us have little income or are completely dependent on the abuser. Of the women who stay in our short-term shelter, the vast majority (78%) live in poverty and 18% work in low paid jobs.
Residents of our transition house cannot find safe, adequate, and affordable long-term housing in their community. Women stay with us for longer and longer lengths of time because they can’t find a suitable, affordable place. Women who’ve moved out of our house regularly call on us to provide them with gift cards to be able to buy groceries for their family.
Ordinary Women Rise: the Radical Women of Vancouver Rape Relief and Women’s Shelter is a call to action and a blueprint for change that equips readers across sectors with the historical context, political analysis, and lived realities necessary to strengthen their work in support of women’s safety, equality, and liberation.
We see time and time again that men are charged with assault and uttering threats, and released back into the community with no meaningful oversight to ensure they do not make good on those threats. Last year in B.C., five women were murdered by a current or ex-male partner that were released on conditions to stay away from these women. These orders did not protect them. We desperately need robust mechanisms to ensure that women and their children are protected from men who pose grave risks to them.Â
"Until there is no longer a market for sexual access to women and girls’ bodies, traffickers will continue to have financial incentive to recruit vulnerable women and girls into commercial sexual exploitation. The work of shrinking market demand for men’s paid sexual access to women is daunting but we believe it is possible and will require all of us to shift the societal attitudes that sustain women’s unequal position. "
"Most commonly, their male partner films their consensual sexual encounter, sometimes surreptitiously. He then posts (or threatens to post) it online to platforms such as PornHub, to coerce the woman into staying in the relationship or conversely, to punish her for leaving. Such a video being posted on the internet (and often remaining there permanently) can have a devastating impact on the lives, livelihoods and social relationships of the targeted women."
Of the women who call Vancouver Rape Relief for being victims of sexual assault or rape, 27% were sexually abused in their childhood.
Of these 27 %, 47% were victims of incest, meaning that the abuser was an adult family member.
Male violence against women in the domestic setting, and in every other situation, is a direct result of the social construction of masculinity that manifests in men’s entitlement and control over women’s bodies. Since pornography and prostitution are misogynist systems that objectifies, dehumanizes, and commodifies women, we are calling on the Committee on the Status of Women to take a strong stand against pornography and prostitution.
