Imagine a world without gender-based violence. A world without sexism and gender discrimination. Imagine feeling safe and free to walk alone anywhere, at any time, and not even having to think about it. Girls will have the confidence to raise their hands in class and share their ideas. Women will not hesitate to ask for the pay and promotions they deserve. This is the ideal world that we are working to create at SafeUP. But the question is, how do we get there?
Considering that we are in the middle of the 16 Days of Activism against gender violence promoted by the United Nations, we believe that it is crucial to state what we believe is the core solution to end this problem.
SafeUP enables women to connect to one another and is a powerful tool for prevention, but how do we eradicate gender-violence?
We are creating amazing communities of women that protect and support each other, we wish that the protection wasn’t even needed in the first place. The reasons for gender violence are so ingrained in our culture and societies, that long-term change can only be fully achieved through education.
As the organization BLOOM365 highlights, educating young people, especially those in middle and high school, can drastically change how society looks at gender. Education can enlighten people of all genders about how they are contributing to gender bias and discrimination, even in the smallest ways. Only then, when the ingrained perceptions we have had for years on gender roles, can other behaviors start to change for the better.
Over centuries, gender bias has become deeply embedded in our society.
Gender discrimination leads to inequality in healthcare, violence against women, toxic masculinity, employment, and much more, all of which put both women and men in danger.
1 in 3 women have experienced violence during their lifetime. This number is completely unacceptable.
Therefore, we believe that when you start at a young age, transversal education for all children has the power to prevent violence before it begins by addressing its root causes. Education promotes and enforces empathy, raises awareness on the severity and consequences of gender discrimination, and shows people how to stop or fight against bias and discrimination when they see it.
Bloom365 - Source: https://www.bloom365.org/educate
We need to increase this process exponentially in order to uproot gender violence and build the foundations for healthy and safe relationships. At the current rate, the US will not reach gender equality for 200 years. This process has to be sped up, and this requires us to unite and act on all fronts, only together, can we fight this problem.
We need to fight for the safety and equality that we, not just as women but as people, deserve.
Gender violence is a multi-layered problem with different solutions for the short and the long term.
Safety and education are both essential rights that everyone deserves but not everyone has.
Additionally, you cannot get an education without being safe, and the world cannot be safe without education about its dangers.
At SafeUP, our primary goal is to make sure all women can feel safe no matter where they are and have access to a caring community that can propel them to be their fulfilled selves. But we strive for more than that when thinking about our future. We want to create a society where women can find a safe space to support each other in all areas of life, everywhere in the world.
Safety should be a guaranteed right for all people, but right now, women still have to worry about it constantly. Women need something to help them feel safer today. SafeUP and all of our communities are here to support and help all women out there today and are open to keep on creating safe spaces for everyone, anytime, anywhere.