Protecting Women Is Still A Priority

WARNING: This opinion piece contains mentions of gender-based, sexual, and domestic violence, trafficking, abuse, stalking, and firearms. 

 

We need feminism. As a young woman in this country, it frustrates me to no end when people claim that women and men are equal in the United States–and it’s even worse when they claim that “feminism has gone too far” and that men are now oppressed by women. Violence against women occurs at incredibly disproportionate and staggering rates–from 1994 to 2010, 80% of the victims of intimate partner violence were female. Over 1 in 3 women in the US have been raped, abused, or stalked by intimate partners in their lifetimes. While these statistics may just seem like soulless facts, each number represents a woman or girl who was raped, hurt, or killed. Each one was a daughter, a mother, a friend, a sister, a wife, and–most importantly– a human being who did not deserve what happened to her. Clearly, the fight for women’s equality, safety, and dignity is far from over.

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Landmark pieces of legislation, specifically, the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA), have been key in the fight for women’s rights. Before this act’s passage, rape, domestic violence, and other forms of gender-based violence (violence committed against women because of their gender) were viewed as problems that stayed inside the home and rarely ever resulted in convictions and jail time. In 1994, the Violence Against Women Act changed this. VAWA was passed to address domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, stalking, and sex trafficking. It authorized over 1.5 billion dollars of grants to fund law enforcement, programs for domestic child abuse, the national domestic abuse hotline, shelters and other community programs, rape prevention, and research and data collection on violence against women. 

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VAWA has been found to have reduced the number of rapes and aggravated assaults committed against women; however, it has not reduced all types of gender-based violence in the United States. Given that gender-based violence is clearly still a pressing issue, VAWA can and should be amended in its next reauthorization in order to further protect women. Instead of solely aiming to effectively respond to gender-based violence after it happens, I believe that VAWA can be expanded to aim to prevent gender-based violence before it happens. 

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In order to do this, VAWA must close several gun law loopholes. The first is the boyfriend loophole, which refers to a loophole in gun law that allows abusive partners to access guns. Abusive partners who continue to be abusive after the relationship has ended or are subject to protective orders can obtain guns, which directly harms women–more than half of women killed by gun violence are killed in situations of intimate partner violence and the presence of a gun in domestic violence situations increases the risk of homicide for women by 500%. Another gun law loophole that must be closed is the stalker loophole. While federal law prohibits most convicted felons from owning guns, many stalking crimes are counted as misdemeanors, which allows convicted stalkers to own guns. This loophole must be closed, as attempted murders of women are often preceded by stalking incidents. Closing these loopholes will prevent gender-based gun violence before it even occurs, saving countless women from tragic and undeserved ends.

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Closing these loopholes in future reauthorization of VAWA are especially important now, considering the Trump administration’s proposed changes to the firearm right restoration process. Those convicted of crimes can submit an application to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to restore their rights to own firearms; however, since 1992, Congress has not allowed the ATF to use any funding for this process. An interim final rule at the Department of Justice would provide the Office of the Attorney General with the responsibility for determining if a convicted offender should regain their rights to own guns, which would put victims of domestic violence at severe risk. Background checks have prevented hundreds of thousands of domestic abusers from buying firearms, but this rule would undo all of that. The next reauthorization of VAWA must close the boyfriend and stalking loopholes and ensure that, if this proposed rule comes into effect, the rights and lives of victims of intimate partner violence are prioritized over the firearm rights of convicted offenders.

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Additionally, further reauthorizations of VAWA should fund programs for conditional cash transfers, intervention for abusers, teen dating abuse education, addressing online abuse and cyberstalking, and ending the rape kit backlog. These programs will aim to prevent gender-based violence from ever taking place while building up support for victims of gender-based violence. With violence against women still persisting, it is clear that the efforts against gender-based violence must not stop. The next time that VAWA is up for reauthorization, Congress must take action in order to expand the scope and strengthen the core of this legislation. We have a president in office who will not take action to protect women. It is up to Congress to stand up for women’s rights and protect women from violence.