Challenges Of Women’s Equality In the Courts
Rhyannon O’Heron November 5, 2012
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Introduction
In 1988 Lisa S. Price wrote in “Women’s Interest: Feminist Activism and Institutional Change” for WAVAW. The whole point of this publication was to document the nuances of rape crisis workers in the feminist movement who were working with law enforcement and the criminal justice system.
The publication was built on the herstory of WAVAW’s early days of choosing to engage, educate, and shift attitudes inside of these institutions in order to support women after experiences of sexualized violence.
The decisions to work alongside of systems, which have had a hand in the oppression of women and were not created with women’s interests in mind, were not taken lightly. WAVAW incorporated the imperative to advocate for women into the foundations of the organization and its constitution.
Rather than accepting the dangerous realities of women’s lives in a rape culture, the founding mothers worked under the assumption that this was not the way things were supposed to be; they knew ordinary people could shift society.
In celebrating our thirtieth anniversary, WAVAW reflects on our ongoing commitment to hold women at the center of all our work. This includes continuing to advocate, educate, and speak out and demand that those that are inside the criminal justice system acknowledge privilege and incorporate an understanding of systemic inequality.
We continue to hear stories from women that they don’t feel the criminal justice system reflects justice after sexualized violence. In order to reach out to people in positions of authority and advocate successfully, certain types of credibility are required.
In the face of the ongoing struggle of the feminist movement to earn legitimacy within a patriarchal context, standard research is often used to back up women’s experiential knowledge. Yet, Status of Women Canada’s research mandate was annihilated, leaving a 20 year gap in research on violence against women in this country.
Due to a lack of funding for research on women’s experiences before the court in the past 20 years, WAVAW decided to capture the stories of our own clients. In tracking the experiences of women navigating systems, from the initial connection with the medical system through to the end of their time with the courts, we noticed that the realities of women achieving justice after a sexual assault had not altered since the 1990s.
This led us to further investigate this trend. This paper allowed us to examine how to agitate for change so that we can continue to create a world where perhaps one day women will achieve the justice they seek after a sexual assault through the systems we are working to shift.
In 2012, WAVAW applied to the University of Alberta with Rhyannon O’Heron to collaborate on this research. O’Heron’s expertise as a law student allowed us to interview Crown Counsel and integrate important legal arguments alongside WAVAW’s feminist principles.
It is our hope that this paper will inspire you to imagine new possibilities and generate momentum for change; however you can, so that one day we can create a society free from violence where justice is an everyday reality.
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