Policy Insight: COVID-19 and Indigenous women’s safety
Fall 2020 / Sole Contributor / Graduate Project
A project focused on identifying how a vulnerable population has been impacted by the pandemic and which stakeholders had influence within this context.
In this problem finding assignment, I had to research a vulnerable population and identify how they were being impacted by the pandemic and what groups had influence within this context.
Key activities
Research and stakeholder needs analysis.
Focus areas
Policy insight, actor ecosystems.
Positionality Statement
I am a settler Canadian woman who chose this topic as an opportunity to develop an understanding of the topic space. The course for which I undertook the work did not include ethics approval for primary research and so the stakeholders discussed were not engaged as part of the process. The work is based only on secondary research conducted over a short span of time. Although I’ve done my best to respectfully and thoughtfully reflect on the topic, there may be gaps or assumptions not addressed.
Notes
This research takes a “pan-Indigenous” view of the topic in order to broadly explore the question, however recognizing that there are many different perspectives, traditions, and nuances between Indigenous Nations and that the Indigenous peoples within them experience different realities based on a variety of factors.
As a gendered crime, it primarily is perpetrated against women and by men, however men also experience IPV and women also perpetrate it. This research was focused on women who experience intimate partner violence.
The use of the term “women” includes Two-Spirit and gender diverse people.
Problem Space
For this work, I chose to research the intersection of COVID-19 and Indigenous women who experience intimate partner violence (IPV). The goal was to develop an understanding of the context facing these women and investigate how the pandemic and key stakeholders were affecting their experiences.
As part of my research, I reviewed data around IPV in Canada both historically and during the pandemic, and explored Indigenous history and experiences in Canada.
Preliminary research showed that the imposed isolation measures and community shutdowns are magnifying the conditions for intimate partner violence, and particularly for Indigenous women who already face systemic discrimination for being Indigenous and for being female.
Key insights
Social crisis and societal upheaval cause a spike in intimate partner violence, creating a “shadow pandemic” (Mlambo-Ngcuka, 2020)
Intimate partner violence against Indigenous women has increased 7% since the beginning of the pandemic.
The patriarchal values of colonization compound discrimination experienced by Indigenous women: they experience discrimination first for being Indigenous, secondly for being female.
Key stakeholders.
From the research, I identified key stakeholders who are impacted or have influence within the space. This project asked us to identify these key stakeholders and then their specific needs relating to this problem in order to create a hierarchy of needs in order to visualize the relationships and influence between the the stakeholders and their needs.
In this first stage, the needs of the individual stakeholders are identified and prioritized based on the research. Below is an example of the needs and insights I identified for Indigenous women who are facing intimate partner violence based on my research.
Indigenous Women
Insights:
Women need to be able to privately and safely reach out to services and support networks.
Indigenous women in rural or remote communities face additional challenges even in even becoming aware of available resources and services.
Histories of family violence make it harder for Indigenous women to recognize abusive relationships and seek support. Indigenous girls are three times as likely to experience violence before the age of 15 than Indigenous boys.
The safety and well-being of their children are a priority with many Indigenous women choosing to go to shelters to protect them (Maxwell, 2020).
They are more likely to face life-threatening violence and fear for their lives than non-Indigenous women by almost double (Department of Justice Canada, 2017; Native Women’s Association of Canada, 2018).
Systemic racism is prevalent in the healthcare system and emergency services. To be safely and respectfully supported, Indigenous women need access to culturally sensitive and competent services.
Stakeholder Matrix: Hierarchy of Needs
The next step was to create a stakeholder matrix incorporating the different stakeholders and their needs. The needs of each stakeholder had to be prioritized relative to each other.
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