In October 23-24 dr. Vilana Pilinkaitė Sotirovič participated in the conference “Making Universities and Research Organizations Safe from Gender-Based Violence“. The conference was organized within the H2020 project “Gender-based violence and institutional response: Building a knowledge base and operational tools to make universities and research organizations safe” and supported by Spanish Presidency in the EU. In the presentation “You can knock on the doors and windows of the university, but nobody will care’: Why victims/survivors do not report the incidents of gender-based violence?” she summarized the findings of qualitative interviews and highlighted the silencing phenomenon among survivors and bystanders.
“Research has shown that white heterosexual women being in precarious study and work conditions most likely to experience gender-based violence. One third of the interviewed research participants prefer not-to report the incidences. The reasons why they silence the experienced violence are fear or warning of negative consequences if they report. On the one hand, there is a lack of transparent procedures, institutional support and trust in victim/survivor’s story. On the other, survivors/victims are afraid of retaliation and being named as troublemakers or paranoid persons. The institutions tend to ignore and not hear the incidents of unwanted behaviors. Finally, quite often institutions support the perpetrators and excuse them for the misuse of power. The presented findings suggested shifting the focus from individual victim-perpetrator relations to the responsibility of the institutions when dealing with the incidents of gender-based violence.” – dr. Vilana Pilinkaitė Sotirovič shared the main points of the presentation.
More information about the content of the presentations of the Conference – here.
