End Gender-Based Violence Project Update | Coronavirus Visualization Team
Varshini Subhash and Merih Deniz Toruner, co-leads of Project End Gender-Based Violence, hope to continue expanding their media presence and raising awareness one visualization at a time. While there are only four members on their team, their hardworking efforts and passion for gender equity have transformed the project into new heights.
“Each member of this project is passionate about gender equity and eradication of violence due to their unique personal experiences,” says co-lead Varshini Subhash. “This has brought us closer as co-workers and has fostered strong friendship[s]. Three of the four of our members are women, so we bring in the critical female perspective to these problems while still ensuring the presence of an objective male perspective at the same time. Working towards bringing change to a cause close to our hearts often results in end products which are created sincerely and with a lot of thought, which I believe is unique about our project.”
With exciting future goals, Project End Gender-Based Violence has a lot of work ahead to share with the general public, and they aim to continue gaining widespread media exposure on every one of their platforms.
Current Project Initiatives
Project End Gender-Based Violence is currently working on producing episodes of its recently released podcast, She Belongs. This podcast aims to open up the conversation on gender inequity and why women belong at the table. With three episodes of the podcast now released, Project End Gender-Based Violence is excited to continue growing its online presence!
You can watch the most recently released episode below!
The project’s objectives are currently centered around scaling up the She Belongs Podcast, which entails releasing several more episodes, building up a substantial audience, and actively promoting the podcast on various platforms. The podcast is currently viewable on Youtube; however, readers can also listen to it on Spotify and read its transcription on The Medium.
Each episode features a leading expert in the healthcare field, who is given the space to extend their knowledge of gender-based violence prevalence during this pandemic crisis. Episode One, for example, featured Dr. Annekathryn Goodman, a Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Biology at Harvard Medical School. Throughout the episode, she explained the increased vulnerability of women to violence during disaster settings, a phenomenon seen amidst the COVID-19.
This is only a glimpse into the exciting future in store for the She Belongs podcast. With more episodes underway, Project End Gender-Based Violence is excited to continue growing its media presence.
Visualization Analysis
During the latter half of 2020, the team examined the rise of gender-based violence by creating and publishing data visualizations, some of which even received a feature from Balance The Ballot. Haleema Ahmed, a team member, took the lead in developing many of these visualizations and worked hard to bring these stories to life.
By comparing the incidences of household violence crimes in 2019 vs. 2020 throughout different geographic regions, it is evident that the pandemic has had a direct correlation to the spike in domestic violence.
In one such visualization (pictured left) comparing the rise in intimate partner violence in Los Angeles between 2019 and 2020, it is evident that incidences of domestic violence and rape occurrence have surged post-pandemic. Unsurprisingly, instances of unlawful (forcible) sex show a spread over the same areas with high reports of intimate partner violence, which indicates that many of these reports involved both types of crimes.
“Our observations confirmed the original hypothesis that the pandemic could be largely responsible for the distinctly dense patterns of domestic violence as opposed to the comparatively lower rape patterns on the streets,” says Varshini Subhash, project co-lead. “We also noticed corresponding spikes in helpline calls for domestic violence, which conclusively indicates a sharp rise in violence at homes and a lack of available help.”
Through extensive visualizations and time-series analysis, Project End Gender-Based Violence found this same phenomenon in various other cities across the United States, such as Ann Arbor, Providence, Atlanta, etc.
All this data suggests — alongside the information provided by healthcare experts like Dr. Annekathryn Goodman — that women are increasingly susceptible to gender-based violence during times of crisis. Our pandemic has exacerbated this issue, and more resources need to be provided to help women escape domestically abusive households.
Recruitment Needs
Currently, Project End Gender-Based Violence is not looking for any new members at this time. However, if you are interested in this project and would like to apply to be a member of the Coronavirus Visualization Team, please fill out this form below. If the team has any recruitment needs in the future, your application may be considered.
The CVT is always on the lookout for partnerships and project collaborations with organizations that seek data we can use. We welcome organizations that are willing to provide mentorship and resources to help us fulfill our mission. If you would be interested in collaborating and/or mentoring Project End Gender-Based Violence with any of their media initiatives, please email us at coronavirusvisualizationteam@gmail.com.
Thank you for reading this project update!
