Blog
Delivering services that work for survivors of colour
By Talat Yaqoob
Women are not a homogenous group. Survivors of sexual violence are not a homogenous group. As such, sexual violence support services and policy-influencing to tackle violence against women, cannot be delivered effectively if they are responding under the wrong assumption that “one size fits all.” It is why many women’s organisations in Scotland have shifted their work into what is termed an “intersectional” approach. This simply means that they are delivering their services, advocacy and influencing with the acknowledgement of the impact of overlapping systems of inequality and oppression, and that they respond with the understanding that many women face multiple and compounding inequalities. For example; sexism alongside racism, classism, homophobia, transphobia and/or ableism.
The term “intersectionality” was originally coined by academic and activist, Kimberle Crenshaw in her 1989 paper focused on Black women’s double discrimination within the workplace which failed to see them paid or promoted fairly and often without the legal infrastructure in place to recognise the compounding inequalities they face. Whilst the word may be used more in feminist practice in Scotland of late, it cannot be another buzzword without meaning. It takes challenging status quo practices, cultures and behaviours which embed the overlapping experience discrimination, particularly racism and sexism. Centrally, it is about power redistribution. Before any organisation can call themselves “intersectional” they need to evidence how they are applying an intersectional approach. This could be evidenced through which communities of women they are adequately assigning resources to, which women are engaged in service development plans and the extent to which power to influence is shared with marginalised women.
Rape Crisis Scotland is on a journey to better evidence its intersectional credentials and to illustrate how it can be a proactively anti-racist organisation alongside a feminist one. This is crucial to ensuring women of colour survivors of sexual violence are getting the support and advocacy they rightly deserve. As part of this journey a research report into the experiences of women of colour survivors in Scotland has been commissioned. This report worked with a small group of women of colour to co-design the research process and identify the necessary questions that needed to be asked to advance this work. The group wanted to ask about women of colour’s experiences of accessing support services, their experience within the justice system and what they felt was needed in terms of prevention and policy.
The research included surveys, focus groups (in person and online) and one to one interviews. A variety of methods were used to ensure participants felt safe and comfortable enough to engage in what were, at times, incredibly difficult discussions. The full report can be read on the Rape Crisis Scotland website, however some key findings and recommendations are explained below.
A majority of women stated that there was a lack of understanding of how sexism and racism overlapped and felt they would not be “fully seen” within such services. Participants wanted services to have anti-racism training, strategy and cultures embedded in their organisations.
Participants strongly emphasised the need for women of colour and migrant women specialist services to be better resourced and to be given prioritisation in advocacy work. Multiple women stated the need for more specialist services to exist to enable women from racialised communities to have the culturally informed and responsive spaces they need.
A reoccurring theme throughout discussions was the consequences of hostile environment policies targeting migrant women and institutionalised racism and sexism within policies. Participants wanted to see Rape Crisis Scotland, and others focused on violence against women, to take a more vocal stance of support for these communities of women to better build trust and opposition to oppressive policies.
The increasingly reported levels of racism and sexism with policing was widely discussed. Participants explained their lack of trust in policing and the justice system, and that close ties between support services and these institutions, may lower trust of survivors accessing services. As such, violence against women organisations need to consider the perception these partnerships have, and ensure that the rationale for these relationships is clear and that critique of these intuitions, including opposition to racism within them, is strong and visible.
Wider, and important, comments were made about the need for improved accessibility, translation services, prevention methods focused on men and boys, and outreach to communities.
This research project should be viewed only as a starting point. What matters most is what comes next; how solutions will be implemented, how accountability to women of colour will take place, and how women of colour’s voices will influence the direction of mainstream service and policy design.
RSS
