https://www.academia.edu/123651403/Women_and_Violence_Gender_and_Violence_in_West

????????????????????????????????????????????????? By Dr. Arch. FRANCA COLOZZO

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1) Today we talk a lot, perhaps too much, about equal opportunities, but without men really taking it into serious consideration. It seems more like a facade effect, because it is fashionable, than a real leap in quality.

2) In an era so troubled by the post-pandemic crisis with unprecedented economic implications, the problem of women in the world seems to be getting worse and worse: education of children, female employment, gender violence, discrimination in the world of work, etc. seem increasingly difficult to achieve. What tools can then be put in place to deal with this emergency?

3) The female problem seems to emerge even more in war zones, such as Syria, Sudan, Somalia, Yemen, etc., or where the lack of freedom and free communication, rape, violence against women, and more, is added to an impoverishment of the female condition that represents a cry of alarm that must be responded to quickly before the situation worsens further with further damage to the mental health of women themselves.

4) The male position is not always able to understand the complex female universe, to perceive its emotional difficulties, material and spiritual needs together with the expectation of a better life. We often talk about female empowerment to ride the growing wave of a discomfort of enormous proportions with the exclusive intent of proposing themselves as mediators or protagonists. The image on social media is the one that prevails over a sincere attitude and the will to resolve the ongoing problems.

The real knot to untie is violence against women that has worsened even in the West despite more favorable working conditions and apparent democracy.

The number of victims and forms of violence in Italy.

31.5% of 16-70 year olds (6 million 788 thousand) have suffered some form of physical or sexual violence in their lives: 20.2% (4 million 353 thousand) have suffered physical violence, 21% (4 million 520 thousand) sexual violence, 5.4% (1 million 157 thousand) the most serious forms of sexual violence such as rape (652 thousand) and attempted rape (746 thousand). It is important to immediately resolve the two issues: Education and Economic Independence of Women, which also means getting to the heart of the economic crisis that is gripping us and that often causes situations of hardship and violence against women, the weakest elements of the social ring together with children.

Work situation of women in Europe

Comparing similar and dichotomous situations in Europe, it is clear that France has even surpassed the very advanced Norway. It is well known that Northern European countries are at the forefront of equal opportunities. In fact, female employment, even in relation to occupational groups that are normally a male prerogative (corporate boards of directors, universities, government, etc.), as well as equal pay for men and women, are the flagship of Northern European countries. Policies for young people and women can boast legislation suited to the new challenges that the post-pandemic imposes on us.

Italy, my country, on the other hand, is like the rearguard of this European system aimed at distributing increasingly emerging roles for women. Why? Too much bureaucracy and cumbersome laws, etc. France, on the other hand, has managed to overcome the gap in female employment and today can boast about 46% of female employment even in managerial positions that are usually a male prerogative, while in Italy it stands at a paltry 13%.

Even foreign careers, the result of immigration, are not counted as they provide the necessary support to families in caring for the elderly. In short, the Asian situation is (especially in Pakistan, India), where women have even more marginal roles compared to the West, in addition to the plague of child marriages, it is certainly worse than the West. Overpopulation, even in Africa, makes female progress difficult and a sudden change substantially impossible if human rights are trampled on every day.

The basic condition, therefore, to re-establish a greater balance where I find the Asian and African social structure much more unbalanced, is:

1) In-person schooling, an essential and indispensable tool not only for education but also for pedagogical and mental health.

2) Gender equality, without which we go nowhere.

It is therefore useless to fictitiously celebrate Women's Day every year if these knots are not untied without forgetting that the role played by women has an edge over their male colleagues due to empathy and predisposition to sacrifice, also having a brain capable of excelling even in the so-called hard sciences, debunking the false myths of the past.? We therefore hope that not only in the West, but especially in Asia and Africa, we will wake up from this long sleep in which we have tried to ignore the women's issue, thus worsening human and social growth and indirectly increasing the onset of gender violence. In the meantime, global conflicts have increased disproportionately, as have the persecutions of ethnic and religious minorities, and the educational gap, with a consequent unstoppable growth of poverty in the world. Will we be able to get out of the tunnel in which cultural stratifications have segregated us and find a point of convergence between the male and female universes? This will be the post-pandemic challenge at the beginning of the third millennium in the name of sustainability and the SDG objectives set by the UN. But above all, this will be the challenge to achieve Peace.

The primary reason for violence is also the economic crisis that plays a fundamental role between partners. Growing poverty, transport problems, in the school sector where distance learning had taken the place of in-person learning with the well-known consequences of progressive illiteracy, especially for families without technology, not to mention the increasing mental and social discomfort, all these reasons are a strong deterrent to a supportive recovery of the world we live in. If we do not operate according to a sustainable economy, a Long Term Economy, the future will be dark with a consequent surge in violence against women.

The Western case, to conclude, although serious especially in Italy for the reasons I will mention, represents the other side of the coin that in the East is even more virulent even if women often tend not to talk about it and to hide household chores, being more subservient and subservient to male power.

In Italy, in particular, it is a phenomenon that has its roots in the peasant traditions of the beginning of the last century, of the poverty that led many men to emigrate to the Americas between the two great world wars. But, in this case, the Italian situation, with Greece and Turkey, one of the most serious in Europe, has its origins in the role played by mothers who favor male children from birth, immediately establishing male and female roles within the family as well as in society.

If mothers lean towards male children, what prospect could we ever expect for an improvement? In Italy, almost a woman is killed every day and the most banal reason is emotional, the pain that the husband or partner feels in being left by his woman. The banality of the pretext, of a frightening infantilism, has its roots in a bad relationship with the opposite sex. The inability to communicate and understand different roles is rooted in an incorrect relationship with the mother who has induced in the male child, even unintentionally, narcissism and dominating ambitions typical of social roles of machismo.

There is no point in making speeches if we do not start changing the perspective within the family and the social structure, even when choosing a husband for our daughters (something that has totally gone out of fashion here). Personally, I have two daughters and I have never imposed the choice of husband on them nor would they have allowed me to. Furthermore, let me say a few words on the role that religion, operating a collective brainwashing, plays in this sick context. If men and women are shaped from an early age towards a form of gender discrimination, how can we think of changing the world? We should be very strong internally and cleanse ourselves of the erroneous limiting beliefs that have shaped society, not allowing a balanced growth free from discriminatory behavior.

I conclude my brief speech here by inviting you to read what is written on Academia and on social media, my numerous books on ecological topics, on desertification, on water, on the soul, etc. If the world population is struggling for pure and simple survival, how can we cleanse ourselves of limiting beliefs when material needs are pressing?

I close with this question that is the key to understanding all the problems that afflict the world. Should we, especially us Westerners, start giving up many benefits and every form of consumerism, to try to balance the imbalance that afflicts the third world. The plague of violence against women has different origins, from the emotional to the economic. Let us women, therefore, start trying to alleviate our offspring in a way that is different from the past and without inequality between the two genders. This is the first fundamental step dictated by common sense and education. We always blame men, but by whom were and are these men raised? Exactly by women. There would be a lot to say, too much, especially on female consumerism, which I have already discussed in a previous speech. Saving the world depends above all on us women, turning it upside down to restore the balance, since we have immense power: that of giving birth to the men and women of the future.

https://www.academia.edu/123651403/Women_and_Violence_Gender_and_Violence_in_West