Tackling gender-based violence in different social and economic spheres

Expected Outcome:

Projects should contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:

• Collect data and analyse the prevalence and impact of gender-based violence (GBV), including tech-facilitated GBV, in different socio-economic contexts and legislative frameworks, and provide policymakers at regional, national and EU level with recommendations to address it.
• Support employers, policymakers, practitioners, and civil society organisations in their work on the prevention, protection, prosecution, and provision of services in addressing GBV, including through promoting best practice sharing, mutual learning and education material focused on consent.

Scope:

Gender-based violence (GBV) is a prevalent issue, with 1 in 3 women in the EU having experienced physical and/or sexual violence, 22% of women in the EU having experienced violence by an intimate partner, and 55% having been sexually harassed.^[1] GBV has destructive consequences for individuals, organisations, the economy, and society as a whole. Gender-based violence is violence directed against a person because of that person's gender or violence that affects persons of a particular gender disproportionately. It can be sexual, physical, verbal, psychological, or economic and occur in different forms, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty. However, important knowledge gaps remain on the prevalence and impact of gender-based violence across different social and economic areas. For example, in certain sectors, occupations and work arrangements, like night work, healthcare, hospitality, social services, emergency services, transport and education, workers are more exposed to violence and harassment, although comparable, intersectional data is often still lacking in these fields.^[2] While the restrictions imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic led to an increase in domestic violence, still little is known about the impact of the associated rise in teleworking on women’s working conditions, including the safety of their working environment. Moreover, in sports, initial studies on sexual GBV showed that a significant percentage of female athletes in Europe are exposed to sexual harassment^[3], but no comprehensive pan-European data is available on this.

Another research field, which requires further attention is the impact of tech-facilitated GBV, including non-consensual sharing of sexually explicit images, manipulated intimate images (e.g., deepfakes and other forms of generative AI), or child sexual abuse online, as well as the potential positive and negative use and effects of AI on GBV.

Therefore, proposals should look at gender-based violence in one or more of the following areas: 1) GBV in the world of work, 2) GBV in sports 3) GBV on online platforms.

Across these areas, proposals should take into account online and offline forms of gender-based violence, and consider intersecting factors, such as age, socio-economic and migrant background, disability, racial or ethnic origin , religion, geography, as well as gender identity and sexual orientation. Proposals should also address the role of bystanders and superiors in addressing gender-based violence and assess the availability and effectiveness of victim support. For data collection, proposals should make use of surveys, as well as administrative data, where available, to assess how public services respond to the needs of GBV survivors and can foster a safe environment. Where appropriate, proposals should seek the involvement of law enforcement, prosecutors and judges, together with academia/SSH research to optimise input and uptake. For proposals addressing the world of work, the involvement of social partners is encouraged.

Where applicable, proposals should leverage the data and services available through European Research Infrastructures federated under the European Open Science Cloud, as well as data from relevant Data Spaces. Particular efforts should be made to ensure that the data produced in the context of this topic is FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Re-usable).

The outcomes of this research will be particularly important in view of recent policy developments, including the EU’s accession to the Istanbul Convention, the EU Directive on Combatting Violence against Women and Domestic Violence, Commission Recommendation on integrated child protection to protect children from all forms of violence, as wells the ILO Convention no.190 on eliminating violence and harassment in the World of Work.

Synergies with projects under the DAPHNE strand of the Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values (CERV) programme are encouraged. International cooperation is encouraged, in line with the Gender Equality Strategy for External Action (GAPIII).

[1] European Union Fundamental Rights Agency, Violence against women: an EU-wide survey. Results at a glance, 2014.

[2] Violence and harassment in the world of work: A guide on Convention No. 190 and Recommendation No. 206 International Labour Office – Geneva: ILO, 2021.

[3] See Recommendations and Action Plan from the High-level group on gender equality in sport: Towards more gender equality in sport. https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/684ab3af-9f57-11ec-83e1-01aa75ed71a1/language-en