Why shelters can help eliminate violence against women

Today, in a show of support for the United Nations campaign to end violence against women, I am wearing orange. It’s a small gesture, but sometimes it’s the little things that collectively make a big difference.

And what a difference we need to make. Worldwide, 603 million women live incountries where domestic violence isn’t a crime. Across conflict-torn regions, rape is used as a weapon of war and women are kidnapped and enslaved. In Bangladesh,30% of women did not consent to their first sexual encounter. In Egypt, 91% of women are victims of female genital mutilation.

In the US, the situation is much better, but the statistics are still shocking. Here, every year, 1.3 million women are physically assaulted by their partners. According to a 2010 report, almost 20% of women in the US have been raped at some time in their lives.

As the UN has pointed out, violence against women is rooted in existing and complex forms of inequalities and discrimination, related not just to gender but also to race and class. Eradicating it will therefore require cultural, economic and political changes, and these won’t happen overnight. But there is something we in the US can do right now that will have an almost immediate effect. We can invest more in shelters for female victims of violence.

When a woman is a victim of domestic violence, she is in many cases faced with a stark choice: staying in the abusive relationship or homelessness. According to the Network to End Domestic Violence, 63% of homeless women have experienced domestic abuse at some point in their adult lives. The Department of Urban Housing and Urban Development says domestic violence is the third leading cause of family homelessness. Half of the cities that took part in a 2005 survey on poverty identified domestic abuse as the leading cause of homelessness. If this is the alternative, is it any wonder some women choose to stay with their abusers?

Shelters – and the services and resources that go hand in hand with them – provide a lifeline for people when they are at their most vulnerable. They can help victims of domestic violence transition back into a normal life, stopping them from being trapped in a permanent cycle of poverty and homelessness – or stuck in an abusive relationship.

All the evidence suggests they work. This month we heard how homelessness among veterans might be eradicated within the year. This is in large part thanks to an increase in federal funds that have been used to build specialized housing and design innovative programmes for homeless veterans. And yet, at the same time, women and their children who desperately need similar services are being turned away because of inadequate resources. In 2013, victims of domestic abuse made more than 9,000 requests for services that could not be met. Of these requests, 60% were for shelter. According to research from the National Network to End Domestic Violence, 60% of those who were turned away ended up returning to their abuser, 27% ended up homeless, and 11% were forced to live in their car.

Channelling money into shelters for those escaping their abusive partners will not tackle the root causes of violence. But by doing something to address the most common form of violence against women, it will certainly make a difference. If we are to get anywhere near meeting the UN’s ambitious goal, we must ensure that those brave enough to leave their situation of abuse have somewhere safe to turn.

Published in collaboration with LinkedIn

Author: Stéphanie Thomson is an Editor at The World Economic Forum.

Image:A woman, who asked to remain anonymous, recounts her experience at a shelter for domestic violence victims in Caracas.VENEZUELA-WOMEN/ REUTERS/Jorge Silva