FROM VIOLENCE TO CARING – Gendered and Sexualised Violence as the Challenge on the Life-span

Mervi HeikkinenWomen’s and Gender Studies

University of Oulu

WOMEN’S AND GENDER STUDIES - The University of Oulu• has been systematically doing gender aware research about sexualised and gendered violence and prevention of violence, providing education on these issues and developing material and courses since 1990’s.• It has been coordinating and participating networks and projects in aim to develop measures combating violence regionally, nationally and internationally • with national and international expert organisations a Multisectoral and multidisciplinary specializing program on violence and violence prevention was constructed.• The developed study programme differs from the other available stydies because of its multidisciplinary approach, extensiveness and since it is arranged through e-learning environment in Finnish and English.

Participants

165

from Armenia (2), Austria, Burundi, Cyprus, Estonia (4), Finland (96), France, Gambia, Germany, Italy (9), Ivory-Coast, Kenya (5), Morocco, Netherland, Nigeria (19), Peru, Rwanda, South-Africa (3), Senegal, Serbia, Spain (4), Sweden (5), Thailand, Uganda, and UK (3).

Approved abstracts

50Estonia, Egypt, South-Africa, Spain, Netherland, Ireland, Italy (5), Austria, Kenya, Morocco, Peru, Sweden (4), Serbia, Finland (27) Thailand, and Estonia.

From Violence to Caring - Gendered and Sexualized Violence as the Challenge on the Life-span. ABSTRACTS. Suvi Pihkala & Mervi Heikkinen & Tuija Huuki & Sari Manninen & Vappu Sunnari (Eds.)Kasvatustieteiden tiedekunta, Kasvatustieteiden ja opettajankoulutuksen yksikkö, Oulun yliopistoISBN 978-951-42-8961-3 (PDF)URN:ISBN:9789514289613http://herkules.oulu.fi/isbn9789514289613/

From Violence to Caring - Gendered and Sexualized Violence as the Challenge on the Life-span. CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS. Vappu Sunnari & Suvi Pihkala & Mervi Heikkinen & Tuija Huuki & Sari Manninen (Eds.) Kasvatustieteiden tiedekunta, Kasvatustieteiden ja opettajankoulutuksen yksikkö, Oulun yliopistoISBN 978-951-42-9008-4 (PDFURN:ISBN:9789514290084 http://herkules.oulu.fi/isbn9789514290084/

FROM VIOLENCE TO CARING -Gendered and Sexualised Violence as the Challenge on the Life-span

KEYNOTES:

Prof Liz Kelly , London Metropolitan University, UKMaking Connections - how addressing all forms of violence, private and public, through an intersectional gender analysis must be at the core of equality work

PhD Neema Nungari Salim , University of Nairobi, Kenya &Project coordinator, researcher Mervi Heikkinen, University of Oulu, Finland

Gender and Sexual Violence in the Life-Span Revisited - locating ourselves through a dialogue between Africa and Arctic

PhD Emma Renold, Cardiff University, UK Boys and Girls: the Normative violence of the (Hetero)gendered 'Child‘

PhD Mary Jane Kehily, The Open University, UKPatterns of Violence and Caring across Three Social Sites - young people in the school, the community and the nation state

FROM VIOLENCE TO CARING –Gendered and Sexualised Violence as the Challenge on the Life-span

WORKSHOPS: • Lähisuhdeväkivallan tiedostaminen ja ennaltaehkäiseminen (Becoming aware and

preventing violence in intimate life) (suomeksi / in Finnish)

• Normativity and sexuality• Intercultural and intersectoral challenges in learning (The long journey towards th

e other)• Violence, power and empowerment in shcool• Challenges in developing non-violent communities among children and

adolescents • Gender violence indicators and policy development • Multiprofessional work and policy development to take actions against violence• Ethics of caring and power in life-span• Alternative healing and empowermentWorkshop that were incorporated with other workshops • School Violence & children and Youth• Humour and violence• Developing non-violent communities and conflict resolution • Sexual and sexist harassment and elimination of harassment

From Violence to CaringA gender sensitive longitudinal study about school violence and the possibilities of developing a safe school culture.The research project is funded by the Academy of Finland (2007-2010).Project is a continuation of the project “Gendered power relations in schools and teacher education” (2001-2003)

The purpose of the project is to increase understanding of visible and hidden mechanisms which children use in mutual relations to secondarise others.The research will produce tools for non-violence education that is based on mutual respect, justice, and caring.

The aims of the project: To analyze whether the often hidden gender-based elements of violence and the representations of femininities and masculinities have changed as the pupils have grown up.Special focus is on humour to increase knowledge in pupil’s emotional sense of security/insecurity in school to develop a gender sensitive, non-violence pedagogy through theorization and action research

Krug EG et al., eds. World report on violence and health. Geneva, World Health Organization, 2002.

AREAS OF MULTIDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH AND COLLABORATION IN WOMEN’S AND GENDER STUDIES AT THE UNIVERSITY OF OULU

Content

• Topical issues in Finnish media in autumn 2008:– violence in schools– Intimate partnership violence– workplace violence– sexual harassment in politics

• CEDAW comments 18th of July 2008• Multidisciplinary and multiprofessional

educational programme

United Nations – concluding observations of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination

Against Women - CEDAWPrincipal areas of concern and recommendations for Finland 18th of July

2008• Gender equality in legislative reform• Gender mainstreaming• Visibility of the Convention and the Optional Protocol• Violence against women (15.-16.)• Trafficking and exploitation of prostitution• Stereotypes in media and advertising• Equal participation in political and public life• Education (23.-24.)• Employment• Health of girls• Immigrant women• Roma women• Sami women• Women with disabilities• Parliament

CEDAW on Violence Against Women15. “…the high incidence of violence against women, including the high number of

women killed in domestic violence, sexual harassment, the absence of a comprehensive strategy to combat all forms of violence against women and the lack of an effective institutional mechanism to coordinate, monitor and assess actions at the governmental level to prevent and address this scourge. (…)

16. The Committee calls upon the State party to intensify its efforts to prevent and address all forms of violence against women and girls, including domestic violence,[…] to put in place expeditiously a comprehensive strategy or action plan and a campaign to prevent and eliminate all forms of violence against women and girls, (…)The Committee urges the State party to take steps towards enacting a legislation criminalizing sexual harassment.

CEDAW on Education• 23. The Committee notes with concern the lack of a gender

perspective in early childhood education and the overall gender neutrality of the educational curriculum and teaching materials. It further notes with concern the high rate of girls experiencing sexual harassment at school and the lack of adequate training for teachers to address such phenomenon.

• 24. The Committee requests the State party to undertake a comprehensive curricula review and to introduce gender-sensitive curricula and teaching methods that address the structural and cultural causes of discrimination against women. It also requests that gender issues and sensitivity training be made an integral and substantive component of all teachers’ training.

A NEED OF EDUCATION DEALING SYSTEMATICLY WITH GENDERED AND SEXUALISED VIOLENCE

In Finland there is a need for systematic multisectoral and multidisciplinary education, that would focus on questions of violence and abuse according to the following mappings:

1.) Oulu Provincial Administrative Board: Preventing Intimate Partnership and Family Violence -project 2004-07;

2.) National violence researchers –network: Education provided by Finnish Universities about Gender and Violence during the semesters 2007-2008.

The situation is not much better generally in Europe e.g. According to the following surveys:3.) Hageman-White et. al (2006) Combating violence against women. Stocktaking study on the measures and

actions taken in Council of Europe member states;4.) Hageman-White et. al (2007) Protecting women against violence. Analytical study on the effective

implementation of Recommen-dation Rec(2002)5 on the protection of women against violence in Council of Europe member states;

E.g. the following Recommendations by the Committee of Ministers challenges for the development of Gender Sensitive and Gender Aware Education and to include awareness of violence to it:

5.) CM/Rec(2007)13 Recommendations on Gender Mainstreaming in Education6.) CM/Rec(2007)17 Recommendations on Gender Equality Standards and Mechanisms.