Violence against Women - Panel Discussion at Goldsmiths University

This panel has been organised to coincide with the UN International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. Violence against women is a major societal problem and public health issue that has its roots in gender relations, and in particular gender inequality. Feminist activists have for generations been trying to combat and raise awareness of violence against women. One of our tasks is to show the scale of the problem. We need to keep showing the scale because violence against women is continually under-acknowledged, trivialised or justified as natural or inevitable. The panel will discuss recent forms of feminist activism that have come about to protest against violence as well as cuts to services such as SistersUncut. We will consider how feminists need to develop continually our knowledge and understanding of how violence works as a social system that shapes individual lives in complex ways.