Gender Violence
Violence against women and girls is one of the most prevalent human rights violations in the world. Specific to gender identity/expression, gender-based violence (GBV) is based on socially ascribed differences between males and females. Violence is directed specifically against a woman because she is a woman. Because GBV intersects with race, heteronormativity, class, age, and ability, women's experiences of violence are directly influenced by discrimination, systemic discrimination, oppression and exclusion. Historically, women have been treated as second-class citizens in Canadian society and have been denied equal access to social and economic opportunities. In the past, women were expected to behave in submissive obedient manners. GBV is derived from unequal power relationships between men and women and is normalized in Canadian society with an apathetic attitude that GBV is inevitable. Patriarchy hurts not only women and girls, but boys and men as they struggle to fit into toxic masculinity's narrow definition of what it means to be a man.
Our Mission
Warmland Women’s Support Services mission is to preserve the dignity and value of self-identified women and gender diverse persons by providing services in an anti-oppressive culturally responsive framework grounded in intersectional feminism to address gender-based violence and its impact on women, youth and families in the Cowichan Valley.
Our Intention
Address
the impact of gender-based violence in a framework of intersectionality and decolonization grounded in feminist theory
Promote
community inclusion through grassroots social action to increase Community’s understanding of Itself as an integral partner in reducing gender-based violence
Embrace
the growing global movement of allied men as a vital resource for role modeling to all men to eliminate all forms of violence and abuse against women and young girls
Remain
a valued stakeholder in our community’s coordinated social response to eliminate sexualized violence
