About this research
This research received external funding from:
Recommended for
There is a need for a multidisciplinary approach involving anthropologists, philosophers, political scientists, sociologists, basically all types of social scientists. The problem of gender-based violence also needs to be framed properly, and it needs to be narrowed down to its roots components.
This research received external funding from:
The cost of gender-based violence globally is estimated to be around 1.5 trillion dollars. Despite efforts since the 1970s, we don’t have success stories we can point out to, we don’t see the progress that we need. In spite of all the resources allocated globally. Part of the reason is that there is a link between the desensitisation of society and the low exposure to these topics. It’s not one out of three women in in Bosnia or South Africa that is subjected to gender-based violence. It’s everywhere, every country in the world. More than 90 percent of cases are never reported, the perpetrator conviction rate is about two to three percent.
The main finding of this study was that there is not enough participation in initiatives to curb gender-based violence yet. Stakeholder engagement about those issues is very low, and it doesn’t feature much on company lists of corporate social responsibility issues or investor issues.
Another interesting finding was that companies and company executives are unaware that issues of gender-based violence affect employees, especially employees from affluent areas. But gender-based violence does not just occur in poor neighborhoods. It occurs everywhere, in all companies, from low-level exmployees to top-level executives.
The study was a mixture of a qualitative content analysis of annual integrated reports, interviews with members of the private sector such as chief executive officers at companies and c-suite members and survey research on the general public.
The participation of employees in our surveys constituted a limitation since many did not want to participate when they saw that the questions were about gender-based violence.
| Concept | Definition |
|---|---|
| Corporate social responsiveness | Organisations’ readiness and propensity to respond to sustainability issues that affect their stakeholders, including employees. |
| Gender-based violence | Any form of physical, verbal, emotional, or psychogical violence directed against a person because of their gender. |
| Employee well-being | The overall mental, physical, emotional and financial well-being of people employed by an organisation. |
Davis, C. (2020). How the Private sector can Address the Issue of Gender-based Violence. Journal of Injury and Violence Prevention, 18 (1), 106-115.
Registered in England & Wales No. 12888487