Morgan Kerley GCU 114 Status of Women in Serbia

In Serbia there are all different levels of violence against women. This has been happening not just in Serbia but a lot of other countries for a long time. There are also different types of violence that women endure in Serbia. Here is a visual to show the breakdown of different levels of violence that women can struggle through (Anonymous, 2000)

Sadly, women can be harmed by people in their homes and this is the largest chunk of violence in this chart taking up 72.2% of violence that happens in Serbia. This mostly happens in lower class families, when family members could be addicted to alcohol, gambling, drugs, and bring their angry out on women. Many women get abused by their husbands, fathers, brothers, etc. because of these addictions (Anonymous, 2000). Although the role of police is limited in these cases. It is said that they do not see these cases as a top priority, and they lack in responses. Even though this is a main problem, women also do not have the courage to leave or ask for help. Husbands will threaten to take the children away so women act as a caretaker first even though she needs help in this situation.

Violence does not just end with physical violence, this can also mean psychological and sexual violence as well. Some women have been extremely traumatized by certain acts of violence in their households. This can really take a toll on their self esteem and trust of other people (Bocvarski & Isakovic, 2010). It is believed that these types of violence happens because of the inequality of women. Because of this, Serbia created a new Constitution in 1989 about women have equal rights as men in the voting process, education, and employment opportunities. This gave many women power to come out for help and lessened the thought of men having superiority. This also created new opportunities for women involved in violence to attend workshops and seek out for help (Bocvarski & Isakovic, 2010). However, this is still a newly created Constitution, and women still face violence every day. Even though this has created new opportunities for some women in Serbia, other's still cannot get the courage to fight back. A study in Serbia said that 17.3% of women in 2006 had not be exposed to violence. This is another chart to help visualize the struggles that 82.7% of women in Serbia go through (Bocvarski & Isakovic, 2010).
Types of AVB Yelling, insulting Denial of attention Denial of money Restricting freedom of movement Throwing and breaking Threats Hitting Prevalence (in %) 62.5 29.1 23.4 21.8 20.7 10.8 4.5

In one article about the violence of women in Serbia said that, "In the patriarchal world in which we live dependence on men is considered a fact of life." This should not be the end of the fight for the violence endured by women. Women in Serbia are trying to solve the problem by getting trying to get a special law approved for the 82.7% of women that deal with this on a daily basis. They are also trying to get the police more active and aware of this violence, so they will respond to it more often and quickly (Bocvarski & Isakovic, 2010). NGO is doing everything in its power to assist women with this problem and help women get this law passed. This law will be about every type of violence. They are also trying to get education about violence out to children in schools, so they will be aware of what violence is and what to do if they are in a violent situation. These educational workshops want to be held in rural areas to spread the word to children and adolescence living in poverty that might not have violence education. Not only will they talk about physical violence, but they would also education them about sexual violence and emotional violence. Overall, people of Serbia are trying to get this situation under control, but they need more help. Women should always feel safe in their homes and workplace. In Serbia it seems like women are not treated equally and there needs to be police action to help get the message across.

Bibliography Anonymous. (2000). Serbia: A perspective on the women's status. http://reliefweb.int/report/serbia/serbia-perspective-womens-status. Retrieved from http://reliefweb.int/report/serbia/serbia-perspective-womens-status Bocvarski, B., & Isakovic, S. (2010). Violence against women in serbia. CDN Gender Gap. Retrieved from http://gender.cdnee.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=25:violence-againstwomen-in-serbia&catid=10:articles&Itemid=4