Author Archives: GreenHouse17 Staff

#EmbraceEquity

International Women’s Day (IWD), marked annually on March 8, celebrates the achievements of women and calls for women’s equality. This year’s IWD theme is #EmbraceEquity in the workplace, healthcare, sports, and arts.  

Jenny Garrett OBE, an award-winning career coach, trainer, and author, compiled 37 ways to embrace equality for the IWD blog. We’ve chosen a few of our favorites from Jenny’s article and added a couple of our own here:

1. Flip it. 

Have you heard a woman being referred to as a ‘working mom’? How often do you hear men referred to as a ‘working dad?’ If you can’t flip it, don’t say it.  

2. ‘One and done’ is not enough.

Recruiting one woman is not enough to make change happen.  

3. Use an intersectional lens. 

Consider the diversity of women in your community and workspace. What are the experiences of women who don’t identify as white, straight, or without disability? 

4. Read Invisible Women.

Written by Caroline Criado Perez, this book uses eye-opening data to understand bias in a world designed by men. 

5. Support art made by women.

Read books, listen to music, and buy art created by women. 

6. Listen. 

Ask women about their experiences and obstacles and act on their recommendations. 

7. Start at home.

Who does the housework, the lion’s share of the caring and household admin?   

8. Support women-owned businesses.

Shopping at small businesses owned by women supports them and their families—and improves local economies. 

9. Stop stagnating women’s careers.

When they are pregnant, parenting, or assuming the responsibility for the care of their parents.  

10. Don’t leave the office housework to women.

Do women, even if in a leadership role, take on more admin tasks at your workplace? 

11. Advocate for gender equity in healthcare.

Know about common gender biases of doctors and call for the inclusion of more women in clinical trials. 

12. Tune in.

Keep in touch with world affairs, watch documentaries, listen to podcasts, and find ways to remove obstacles to gender equity. 

13. Use inclusive language.

When referring to groups of people, an inclusive “y’all” is better than the gender-specific ‘you guys” or “ladies and gentlemen.” 

14. Separate performance.

Appreciate that talent doesn’t just look and behave in one way. Separate performance from potential and personality from skill sets. 

15. Watch and attend women’s sporting events.

Start with the University of Kentucky Women’s Basketball, Softball, or Soccer games. 

16. Check your bias.

Take the Implicit Association Test to measure attitudes and beliefs that people may be unwilling or unable to report. 

17. Believe survivors of intimate partner abuse.

Support missions like ours to advocate against power-based violence, call for change, and support survivors during the healing journey. 

This year’s national theme for Black History Month is Black Resistance.

Each year, the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) chooses the theme for Black History Month. The Black Resistance theme is a call to study how Black Americans have established safe spaces where Black life can be sustained, fortified, and respected.

Indeed, this is true for ending intimate partner abuse. Our mission took shape with suffrage during the Jim Crow era. Theories of second-wave feminism, developed alongside the Civil Rights movement, defined the mission.

Black women resisted systemic racism and oppression during these decades—and exclusion by white women in the work—to develop philosophies, policies, and practices that are the cornerstone of our mission.

Safe Spaces

In more recent years, Black women have developed research and discourse that have redefined best practices in the field. But people of color harmed by an intimate partner are less likely to report the crimes or seek support from social service organizations than white women.

This report prepared by the Women of Color Network (WOCN) explains why. Distrust of law enforcement, criminal justice processes, and social service providers is common—for good reason.

Law enforcement are more likely to arrest Black women for self-defense in the context of intimate partner abuse. If seeking legal protection from abuse, Black victims are more likely to be criminalized by the judicial system than white victims.

The WOCN report also outlines several reasons that discourage Black victims of intimate partner abuse from accessing social services, including the following:

• Cultural and/or religious beliefs
• Lack of service providers that look like the survivor or share everyday experiences
• Lack of culturally appropriate services
• Lack of trust based on the history of racism and classism

“…the survivor seeking assistance is the only expert on their culture and their experiences within their community.”

Looking Back & Moving Forward

This month we renew our commitment to non-discrimination, honor contributions of Black women to our mission, and celebrate Black women-led organizations that are creating safe spaces for positive change.

Violence prevention requires community and individual change to be effective, and deep-seated beliefs complicate meaningful shifts. Change does not happen quickly—and time is not on our side.

Domestic violence was seldom a topic of public discourse before 1970. Only 50 years have passed since grassroots rallies, known then as the battered women’s movement, began to raise awareness and call for change. Two decades would pass before the Violence Against Women Act established domestic violence as a federal crime in 1994. This important legislation was signed three months after the infamous police chase of a professional football player attempting to flee domestic homicide charges.

I have witnessed promising community-based solutions since this time. The Kentucky Coalition Against Domestic Violence, a 15-member network of primary services providers, has been leading the change. Local fatality review committees, coordinated in Lexington by the Domestic and Sexual Violence Prevention Coalition, identify gaps that could have prevented the tragedy. Most recently, Mayor Gorton has convened experts from various sectors to determine best-practice strategies.

My role offers the opportunity to discuss these issues with hundreds of people monthly. These conversations remind me that our community wants the violence to end. A survivor recently shared her story with a small group that had gathered to raise awareness and funding for our services. A guest asked which services were helpful to her. The survivor explained that having time to begin healing was the most important.

Research and practice suggest it takes an average of seven attempts, often made over many years, to escape domestic violence permanently. Dozens of factors inform a victim’s decision to reunite with the abuser. Lack of a supportive network, experiences of homelessness after fleeing, and concerns about losing custody of children are common. The most pervasive reason can be more difficult to reckon.

The decision to stay or return is made to keep themselves and their children alive.

Leaving is the most dangerous time, especially if the abuser has access to firearms. Surviving abuse requires a keen sense of threat detection. Victims perceive signs of imminent and more violent abuse, possibly lethal harm, easily missed by others.

When able to establish safety, survivors seldom have time to focus on healing the physical and emotional wounds of abuse. A long uphill battle for stability demands immediate attention. The fallout of financial abuse, part and parcel of domestic violence, can feel insurmountable—lack of affordable housing and living wage employment in our region delay possibilities.

October is a time to demonstrate your support for survivors of domestic violence. Seeking answers to questions can be a good place to start. Does your workplace have a domestic violence policy? How does your place of faith respond to disclosures of intimate partner abuse? Does your professional role require you to provide information and referral if abuse is suspected?

I urge you to participate in domestic violence awareness activities this month. Identify yourself as an advocate and call for an end to the violence. It’s about time.