Reality for women
In communities however the picture is very different. Women report being unaware of their human rights. They experience violations of their human rights on a regular basis and have little or no knowledge, support or means to address these.
Some of these violations are experienced by all members of particular communities, such as poverty in areas of high deprivation. Violations however have specific impacts on some women more than others, e.g. women will be more affected by cuts to health and social care as they make up the majority of unpaid carers. It is essential that we view human rights violations through a gender lens.​
This Human Rights Framework will not only inform women of their rights, but will support GWVSN and other organisations to identify and take action on issues that are being raised by women in the community. In pursuing “gender-transformative change”, we hope to achieve change for women as a community. Although this will benefit individual women the framework will also seek to “reframe the discourse of empowerment – and the burden of change- from a focus on women’s individual agency to collective responsibility and political engagement and action. (Hillenbrand, E. et al (2015) Measuring gender-transformative change; a review of literature and promising practices.)
Intersectional discrimination
Intersectional discrimination refers to the overlapping or combined effects of discrimination based on multiple personal characteristics, such as race, gender, sexuality, class, disability, and other factors. This concept acknowledges that individuals can experience complex and compounded forms of discrimination that cannot be understood or addressed by considering each characteristic in isolation.
Key Features of Intersectional Discrimination
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Multiple Grounds of Discrimination: It occurs when a person is subjected to unfair treatment because of more than one attribute, such as being both a woman and a member of a racial minority.
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Unique Experiences: The effects of combined discrimination create unique experiences of disadvantage that differ from the sum of individual discriminatory factors. For example, a Black woman may face sexism in ways that differ from those experienced by white women.
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Structural and Systemic Nature: Intersectional discrimination often highlights inequalities embedded in institutions e.g. courts, local authority services, police etc, laws, or social practices that disadvantage certain groups based on their intersecting identities.
