Million Women Rise are gearing up for their annual march on this Saturday 8th March. The group will be marching in central London on International Women’s Day – but this is a group with a key difference. On their website, they write:
The march and other MWR activities are led and organised by Black women for ALL women. We recognise the interconnectedness of systems of oppression. We work together to create safe spaces, free from fascism, discrimination and hate.
Feminist groups that advocate and organise against male violence can be dominated by cis, white, and middle class women. Million Women Rise make it clear that they’re working with an intersectional approach:
When we demand an end to men’s violence against us, this includes calling for the dismantling of all oppressive structures that promote and facilitate everything from misogynoir through to ableism.
Million Women Rise: violence in statistics
Million Women Rise explain that one in four women will experience domestic violence in their lifetime. However, amongst these vital statistics is another heartbreaking consideration:
The statistics below only give the “official” picture in England and Wales. Many victims/survivors do not report their experiences to state agencies. This mean that the data does not show the true scale of violence.
Many people are violently coerced into not reporting their experiences. Even then, a diversity of experiences of violence means women will have wide-ranging differences in the kind of help they need:
Services such as specialist Black/Global majority women’s services, Rape Crisis Centres and Women’s Aid refuges are a lifeline for many victim/survivors. The numbers of women and children being supported in this way is not presented in the “official” data.
Instead, Million Women Rise emphasise that they’re also marching for people who have no choice but to suffer silently:
While their experiences are not part of the “numbers”, we hold their truths in our hearts.
Intersectional concerns
Disabled women are often a group that is lost in statistics. The Office on Women’s Health writes:
Research suggests that women with disabilities are more likely to experience domestic violence, emotional abuse, and sexual assault than women without disabilities. Women with disabilities may also feel more isolated and feel they are unable to report the abuse, or they may be dependent on the abuser for their care. Like many women who are abused, women with disabilities are usually abused by someone they know, such as a partner or family member.
Recent research from the World Health Organisation suggests that older women and disabled women are most at risk for sexualised violence.
In order to understand, never mind address, the way that male violence against disabled people is deployed we need a much broader understanding of barriers to care. Disabled people are more likely to be poor – and intersections therein are common. Disability services often cater largely to white disabled people and disregard the specific needs of disabled people of colour.
Whilst organisations that offer support to people who’ve suffered male violence are already underfunded, this is further compounded when it comes to organisations that cater to a more specific group. For example, disability services are also stretched when it comes to resources and underfunding. But, when a disabled person of colour experiencing sexualised violence needs support, they can’t separate out the parts of themselves that need support to the relevant source of help.
Million Women Rise: come together
Million Women Rise are demanding and taking space for all kinds of women. Black women, disabled women, trans women, Muslim women, are a part of this movement. There isn’t always a neat way to articulate all the different parts of someone’s identity that fundamentally change experiences of male violence. It should, in fact, be a given that somebody who is a trans disabled woman of colour is more likely to experience sexualised violence, and needs to have the support they require. That’s something which is the responsibility of institutions, organisations, and each of us.
Catering just, or primarily, for cis, white, able-bodied, middle class people shuts out so many people. The more specific the care, organising, and advocacy we can put out into the world, the more all of us benefit.
The march will set off from Duke Street on Saturday 8th March at 12pm, culminating in a rally at 3:00pm in Trafalgar Square – more information here.
Featured image supplied
