The position of women and violence against them is in a never more difficult time. The situation is particularly difficult and pronounced now, at a time of pandemic when the need for epidemiological measures has increased, and the one that hardest hit women is Lockdown. A recent report says that 97% of young women are sexually abused, and it speaks to the systemic nature of misogyny and violence against women and girls. Sarah Everard, whose life was taken by a man who is also a metropolitan police officer - who belongs to a group of men whom women teach to believe, to call them when they are in danger, is an example of a terrible situation women and girls are in. Consequently, women and girls more and more now have resistance to seeking help from these authorities. There are many other examples such as Blessings Olusegun, Nicole Smallman, and Bibaa Henry, whose stories did not make headlines.
What all this tells us ... tells us that we need to look for ways to prevent violence against women, find other mechanisms to support and help, especially now at a time when we are all fighting together for survival, and women and girls have additional fear and threat to their own lives which threaten them sometimes from even the closest persons. As social workers, we need to work better, more, not only to protect the workforce with a majority of female staff but also to advocate for the rights of the women and girls that we support. All of them are subject to institutionalized sexism.