Preventing gender-based violence is up to everyone

Recently, the 16 Days of Activism Against Women and Child Abuse campaign ended for another year. In South Africa and around the world, the campaign plays a valuable role in raising awareness of the pervasive scourge of gender-based violence.

But, as with any campaign around an issue of such importance, it is vital that awareness evolves into real action. And in the higher education sphere, there is much that universities can do to make a real difference.

South Africa’s levels of violence against the more vulnerable sectors of our society remain alarming. The United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) recently expressed grave concern over the latest crime statistics released by the South African Police Service. It revealed that more than three children and 12 women were murdered daily in South Africa over a 90-day period between October and December last year – while another 21,434 women and children suffered attempted murder or grievous bodily harm.

Such staggering levels of abuse – from which universities are by no means immune – can never be accepted as the norm. And while combating it can seem daunting, it is vital that university authorities never lose the impetus to try, dedicating resources, time, perspectives, skills and insights to help bring about real change.

Policies around gender-based violence need to be developed and regularly reviewed, and the necessary support structures should be established and empowered – not only to provide aftercare, but also to work towards prevention. Universities should treat all incidents of gender-based violence in a serious light, consistently responding with swift and thorough investigations and appropriate disciplinary action. The ultimate aim is to create environments where all students and staff feel secure and respected, regardless of their gender and sexual orientation.

It starts by ensuring that our campuses constitute physically safe spaces for our students – with all the necessary security measures in place. Here, special attention should be paid to ensuring safety at accommodation settings – including off-campus. 

Our campuses should also be intellectually safe spaces, where students feel free to speak out about issues that concern them, and where archaic ideas around masculinity can be exposed and challenged without fear of humiliation or retribution. Discussion platforms need to be deliberately created for this, with the university leadership setting the tone by speaking out against issues that work against a culture of social justice on our campuses.

Creating a safe, caring environment for students includes listening to them, responding in an appropriate and timely way, and working with them to co-create workable solutions. An important part of this is to include students in university governance structures, where they can actively influence policy and decision-making around issues that affect them.

But our responsibilities go beyond our campuses. It is also essential that universities use our society-focused role to speak out against harmful gender stereotypes and outdated perceptions around gender roles. In the process, we play an important part in influencing a new generation of leaders and helping to reshape societal expectations.

Our curricula should be renewed to include a comprehensive focus on principles of gender parity, incorporating awareness and prevention of gender-based violence. And equity must be reflected in universities’ own human resources policies, staff complements and hiring procedures.

South African universities are ideally placed to provide professional mental health support to victims of abuse – many of whom would otherwise not have easy access to it. This support extends to cultivating assertiveness and resilience. Through individual therapy, as well as the various self-awareness programmes, we empower potential victims to realise their own worth. It also teaches them how to avoid an abusive situation and how to act when they find themselves in one.

Economic abuse is a manifestation of gender-based violence that is too often overlooked, trapping women in a cycle of dependency that can prevent them from pursuing employment prospects and attaining personal growth. Education in general remains one of the most potent weapons against economic abuse, but universities should also use their resources towards better understanding the problem’s prevalence and consequences and the most effective interventions to address it.

As part of our society-focused role, we should also use our knowledge and skills to provide counselling, legal aid and economic advice, as well as equipping people with digital competencies and helping them access online resources to support victims.

This much is clear: responsibility for preventing gender-based violence lies not only with the potential victims, but with every member of society. Universities should establish clear and mandatory reporting protocols for staff and students who witness or are aware of instances of abuse. But even more importantly, we must create a culture of responsibility, where information sharing, support and assistance are a natural outflow of a caring, cohesive institution.

Universities cannot win the fight on our own; the business sector and government also need to do all they can. But creating united university communities, based on equity, inclusivity and social justice, is the only way we can properly play our own part in eradicating gender-based violence from our campuses – and in turn, from our society as a whole.

Francis Petersen is vice-chancellor and principal of the University of the Free State, South Africa.