Violence and women

Abstract

After World War II, when the United Nations came into being, the focus was on development of the entire world. This was to be achieved through equity and equality, but these were unattainable because of the different ways men and women are treated. This inequality has been addressed at both national and international levels, but the scales have still not tilted in favour of women. The present paper attempts a look at how societies perceive women after three decades of active interventions. Violence against women has been taken as an indicator of the status and empowerment of women. Data on domestic and sexual violence, trafficking of women and girls and violence against women during armed conflict, war and migration shows that despite policies and strategies adopted for empowerment of women, nothing much has changed for the average woman the world over due to social structures, cultural norms and religious practices.