The hidden face of violence: professional women and gender-based violence

EMOTIONAL STRAIN

- DR ARADHANA RAMNUND-MANSINGH

DURBAN participants observe 15 minutes of silence as part of the national GBV shutdown on Friday.

(SIBONELO NGCOBO Independent Newspapers)

I RECENTLY came across a powerful social media post by Rakhi Beekrum that reminded us of the many forms of gender-based violence (GBV).

It struck me how easy it was to fall into the habit of equating GBV only with physical harm.

The truth is far wider and far more complicated.

Violence against women does not always leave physical scars and bruises.

Sometimes it leaves a woman sitting in a senior position feeling small and alone. Sometimes it follows her home and strips her dignity behind closed doors. Sometimes it enters the boardroom wearing a suit and tie.

As societies push for more women in leadership roles, in Stem (science, technology, engineering and maths) fields and in positions where they have historically been excluded, their visibility comes with a cost.

Professional success often exists alongside a growing vulnerability to subtle and overt forms of violence.

A woman can chair a meeting in the morning, negotiate a multmillion-rand contract in the afternoon and then go home at night to a partner who uses emotional manipulation, coercive control or financial deprivation to keep her in a silent struggle.

The contradiction is astonishing, but real. The United Nations reports that one in three women across the world will experience violence in her lifetime, but these numbers do not capture the emotional strain, intimidation and psychological control many professional women endure in the shadows, silently.

In workplaces across the globe, women often face environments configured to test them.

They navigate male egos that bristle at female authority. They confront subtle exclusion, sidelining and the well-documented "emotional tax" carried by women of colour in corporate spaces.