Source: All Africa
Violence against women has been recognized internationally as a major violation of woman human rights.

This was formalized in 1995 with the United Nations Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against women which was identified as an obstacle to the growth of women.

Echoing this, the Beijing Platform for Action of the forth world conference on women not only called for the elimination of all forms of violence against women, but more specifically recommended that work be done to promote research, collect and compile statistics as well as measure the effectiveness of preventive steps put in place to address violence against women.

It was against this background that Project Alert on violence against women in collaboration with The Girl-friends, both Lagos based non governmental organizations[NGOs] packaged a one day interactive forum for business and professional women in Lagos recently.

The workshop came under theme "Violence against women: an impediment to women in business and management".

Speaking on "Violence against women: Economic impact on business", Managing Director, Brand Zone, Ms Chizor Malize defined violence against women as any act of gender based violence that results in or is likely to result in physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life.

Ms. Malize went further to state that violence against women is quite on the increase both in developed and developing countries of the world.

Quoting figures published by the American Development Bank, she said it indicates that 10 to 40 percent of women in the region have experienced physical violence from their partners adding that 10 to 20 percent have been sexually violated, and 30 to 75 percent have been psychologically abused.

According to reports compiled by UNICEF and the World Health Organisation between 20 and 29 percent of women have been assaulted by their partners in industrialized countries including Canada, New Zealand, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. Typical case is Canada, where in 1995 survey on all forms of violence against women revealed that one half of all women had experienced at least one incident of violence in life.

Considering economic cost of violence against women, she explained that every recognizable effect of violence has a cost whether directly or indirectly.

Enumerating effects of violence against women she said they include intangible cost such as premature death, pain suffering of which there is no imputed monetary value in the economy.

It is estimated that one out of five workdays missed by professional women is related to domestic violence.

Experts are of the view that most battered women experience problems in their work places because their abusers call their employers, harass other employers and stalk the workplace.

These behaviours they said not only endanger the victim, they also put her co-workers, clients, and members of the general public at risk.

Maintaining that domestic violence in the workplace is costly to both the victim and to her employer Malize said the victim may suffer lost work, lost wages and poor performance appraisals.

Describing domestic violence and sexual harassment as leading causes of women in businesses and professions quitting their jobs she said: "women who experience rape or sexual assault are likely to be unable to meet work deadlines and experience decreased productivity up to several month after.

Almost 50 percent of rape victims lose their jobs or are forced to quit in the aftermath of the crime for reasons including harassment by the perpetrator or work ,missing work due to court dates or doctors appointment ,or anxiety fears or embarrassment"

Emphasizing that business are affected by the consequences of violence through lost of time and productive she stressed the need for organizations to respond to issues of abuse in and outside their workplace so as to keep overall productivity high.

Businesses also she said should make investments in detecting and ending violence against women at early stage , adding, that such great endeavour will result in huge social savings in the futures .

In her words: " Since violence affects the profit margin , there incentive for business to lobby governments to work towards effective prevention strategies".

Prof. Ayodele Atsenuwa who spoke on "violence against women : An impediment to women in business and management traced the history of VAW to entrenched notions of women as inferior on the basis of sex and gender.

Identifying some myths which sustain VAW, Prof Atsenuwa said they are as old as human beings themselves and cannot be eliminated ; victims of VAW deserve their victimization; VAW is not as widespread as is made out and; focusing on VAW which is gender specific only serves to reinforce the tendency of women to "whine" and make excuses for inability to measure up.

Delving in to "Violence against women: The Nigeria situation she observed that it tcuts across all levels and classes of the society adding : "its incidence is widespread although there is significant under-reporting because of its commitment to addressing it".

VAW she stated not only violates the right to human, it reduces the dignity of woman, and it has enormous ripple effects.

It also she said, limits the productivity of women as individuals and as a group and serves to reinforce the notion of women and social and economic value.

However, she called on business and professional women to support advocacy to challenge all forms of traditional and cultural practices contributing to gender based violence through policy formulation and intervention

Also she urged them to initiate and support other specific programmes of intervention that will promote policies against sexual harassment in the workplace and schools. In addition she stressed the need for professional and buisness women to join in the campaing against girl-child labour in domestic settings that make them vulnerable to trafficking and sexual violence.

On her part, Executive director Alliances for Africa, Ms Iheoma Obibi who spoke "Voilence against women : challenge for women in business and management" had workplace violence as abusive behaviour engaged in by superiors in ranks or peers in the workplace without the consent of the person on whom it is inflicted .

This behaviour she explained create an intimidating hostile or humulating work environment for the victim and jeopardizing his or her job or interfering with his or her career.

She frowned at organizations that limit the maternity leave of women working with them, just as she condemned contract that limits when women can begin to have their children.

To eliminate violence in the working place experts suggested the following: Awareness raising on intolerable workplace behaviour from all personnel., clear institutional policies on violence in the workplace; prosecuting those that violate against women.

Others are: Creating an enabling environment for reporting by having in place institutionally a "zero tolerance" to workplace violence; Equipping Human Resource (HR) personels with the skills set to document and address. 

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