Fifth Women: Raising Awareness about Violence Against Women in Slovakia

[Central and Eastern Europe-Slovakia]

Organization Name: Initiative Fifth Women
Contact Person: Monika Zabavnikova
Type of ICT Initiative: ICT Advocacy

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Project Background

Fifth Woman was the first nationwide media campaign on violence against women in Slovakia. There were two phases of the campaign: the first from November 23 to December 10, 2001 and the second from January 14 to February 10, 2002. The break was necessary because of the Christmas season, a time when free space in media and public attention was diffucult to get. The goals were the following:

1. To make the general public aware that the phenomenon of violence against women is a gender problem caused by the imbalance of power in society, the causes and extent of violence against women in the Slovak Republic, and propose ways to address the problem.
2. To put women’s NGOs in a negotiating position with government institutions in order to enforce measures that will address the problem and help victims of violence against women.

The activities of the campaign are the following:

• media coverage
  A group of women in cooperation with journalists set up an initiative, the.close, that prepared information materials for media output. Media coverage was monitored and reactions were gathered during the entire period of the campaign. A total number of 96 articles were published. The news peg “every fifth woman is battered” was often used by media in their accounts and reports, which heightened public awareness of the problem.

• infoline fifth woman
  With the cooperation of Slovak Telecommunications, an infoline for the campaign was launched. People who wanted to learn more about the campaign and support it could make their calls through the infoline. It was operated everyday, from 8 a.m. to 12 midnight, and all calls recorded.
  The infoline was active up to February 28, and received a total of 3,121 calls; 672 of which were support to the campaign.

• website www.stopnasiliu.sk
  After some delay, the organisation updated and prepared new versions of information to include: basic information about the campaign, documents on violence against women, media monitoring, discussion forum, and list of the campaign’s partners. All these could be accessed on the website www.stopnasiliu.sk. From November 23, 2001 to February 10, 2002, the site recorded 5,672 visits mostly from Slovakia, and from other countries as well: Czech republic, Austria, Germany, USA, Great Britain, Croatia, Canada, Switzerland, Sweden, Spain, Australia, Denmark, Norway, Poland, Belgium, Hungary, Russia, Ireland, France, Rumenia, Israel, Netherland, Japan, Finland, Italy, Island, Hongkong, Mexiko, American Samoa, Saudi Arabia, Cyprus.

  The information about the campaign and on violence against women were also placed on the websites of NGOs, for example, Moznost, Volby and Aspekt.

• political negotiations
  Through the initiative of Fifth Women, NGOs like Aliancia zien Slovenska, Fenestra, and Pro Familia prepared drafts for legislation, revising civil and criminal codes. The drafts were presented to the Slovak Parliament where two meetings with MPs and representatives from the Ministry of Justice took place. All political parties declared support to the drafts, which when approved and implemented would address victims of domestic violence.

• public discussions Public discussions on violence against women and the gender aspects of the issue were organised across Slovakia.

• TV and radio clips, Internet banner
  In cooperation with the advertising agency iSTEP Communication, “Every fifth woman is battered. Do we care about?“ became the campaign’s slogan. The advertising agency produced TV and radio clips based on a children‘s rhyme. A reputable actor and actress performed in the clips.

  Media organisations gave free space to the campaign ads which appeared on three national TV stations (Markiza, Slovak, Global), and one local TV (Nasa Bratislava) station airing 300 ad clips. Six national radio stations (Fun, Twist, Slovak radio, Expres, Okey, RockFM) together with 10 local radios also supported the campaign, broadcasting a total of 1,000 ads.

  Members of Fifth Women also prepared an Internet banner based on the campaign slogan. Eight providers gave them free space on their websites, registering over a million visits.

• billboards
  A billboard with the same slogan was designed and placed on 100 boards across Slovakia. Graphic design and printing was done by iSTEP Communication, while Akzent media gave the boards.

  Since this was the first campaign on violence against women in Slovakia, organisers decided to use only the text form of the billboard design, taking care not to be too controversial, even if the ad agency prepared three graphic designs with powerful images. Included on the billboard were the infoline number, the website as well as a list of the NGOs involved in the initiative, the donors and partners in media.

• publication Fifth Woman: Aspects of Violence Against Women
  Aspekt published a collection of materials Fifth Woman: Aspects of Violence Against Women, which gave summaries and briefs of all relevant documents and information about violence against women, including interviews and articles. This activity was not funded from the campaign’s budget.

• presentation of publications Fifth Woman: Aspects of Violence Against Women and I Will Make You Hell
  Aspekt also launched two books: Fifth Woman and I Will Make You Hell. A discussion about the issue and the campaign was held at the launch. Around 60 people, mostly women, attended the activity. Again, this activity was not funded from campaign’s budget.

• public lecture by Renate Egger: Establishment and development of movement against gender violence in Austria
  A well-known Austrian psychologist and expert on violence against women, Renate Egger, gave a public discussion on the establishment and development of the Austrian movement for women‘s human rights and against gender violence. About 80 people listened to the lecture. Again, this activity was not funded from the campaign’s budget.

• theatre performence Don‘t cry, Anna
  A theatre group, Banska Bystrica, gave a performance of its play Don’t cry, Anna at the Arena in Bratislava. This performance capped the campaign; dramatically.

The impact of the campaign was assessed from different aspects:

• nationwide level of the campaign using multimedia measures
• cooperation of seven women NGOs working in the field of violence against women in the initiative Fifth Woman
• joint support of most relevant donors; long-term supporters of women’s issues
• gained the attention of media and political parties
• broke the taboo issue and started public discussions
• presented the extent of violence against women
• informed the public of the phenomenon of violence against women as a gender-based problem, which springs from asymmetry of power in society; challenged myths related to this problem
• laid the groundwork for adopting needed changes in legislation
• participation on preparing the drafts for legislation
• carried out the first survey on public opinions on violence against women

The Fifth Women Media Campaign was a joint effort of seven Slovakian women's organisations with an active history of working on violence against women.

Fifth Women decided to apply the GEM evaluation on the use of ICTs in the campaign on violence against women and the gender differences in the discussions about the issue of violence against women.

Setting Objectives

Fifth Women decided to focus on the use of ICT in its media campaign on violence against women, paying particular attention on communicating effectively with the general public and with organisations associated with the initiative of Fifth Women.

Gender and ICT evaluation objectives were:

• To assess gender differences in the reactions/comments of women and men in the discussions on the campaign website (www.stopnasiliu.cz), and on the articles published during the campaign in the Internet media with special focus on the impacts and the relevance of the campaign
• To identify areas for improvement in the campaign website with special focus on its efficiency in disseminating about VAW in Slovakia
• To find about how effectively the different type of ICTs were used in the internal communication and propos areas for improvement.

The strategic use of ICTs in the VAW campaigns was the main Gender & ICT issue addressed in the evaluation.

The evaluation focused on:

• the feedback from the public about the campaign and on the issue of domestic violence against womenin the comments from the online discussion on the Fifth Women Campaign website (www.stopnasiliu.sk), and in the comments from the articles published in the Internet media during the campaign
• the communication among the organisations associated in the Initiative Fifth Women and their perceptions about the campaign and use of ICTs in the campaign

Formulating Evaluation Questions

Public communication

• What are the gender differences on the way women and men discuss VAW
• What are the topics most frequently discussed?
• Did the topics and attitudes towards VAW change during the discussions? Which of these were brought about by the positive impact of the campaign?

Internal communication & effectiveness of ICT in communicating with the public

• How were the members of Fifth Women satisfied with use of ICTs in communicating with the public?
• What kind of reservations did they have concerning internal communication? What were the suggestions given to improve communication for future projects?

Setting Indicators

Since the object of the evaluation were comments given on the online discussion on the Fifth Women Campaign website (www.stopnasiliu.sk), and comments on the articles about the campaign published on the Internet, the content analysis of each comment was used for the methodolgy of the evaluation.

Based on a review of the sample of comments, the following categories were proposed for content analysis:

• Sex of the participant
• Personal experience with violence
• Personal experience with violence in a close environment
• Denouncement of violence against women (VAW)
• Expression of support to the campaign
• Questioning the reliability of the statistical figures of maltreated women
• Rejection of feminism
• Questioning the effectiveness of the use of financial resources for the campaign
• Refer to violence against men

Causes of violence mentioned (In this case, the indicator was explicit expression of the authors in relation to each category):

• Education and upbringing
• Aggressor’s own violence
• Victim of violence herself
• Both of them
• Alcohol
• Attitudes towards institution
• Attitude toward policy
• Attitude toward government
• Attitude toward state
• Attitude towards law

Data on internal communication within the Fifth Women Initiative were collected from the interviews with the five representatives of the Initiative Fifth Women who were involved in the campaign. The interviews focused on three topics: their motivation to take part in the campaign, the use of ICTs for the campaign, and satisfaction with the campaign. (For purposes of this report, only the portion related to ICT use is documented below1).

Identifying Stakeholders/Evaluation Team

There was one person in-charge of the evaluation but there were two additional consultants, who were involved in the specific phases of the evaluation. One of them was a consultant with a background on sociology who assisted in developing the methodologies, and formulating the questions for the evaluation. The second consultant participated in collecting data.

The evaluation goals and objectives were discussed with the members of Initiative Fifth Women. Since it was a joint project, all members had to consent with the framework of the evaluation.

Finding Qualitative Information

CONTENT ANALYSIS OF THE INTERNET DISCUSSIONS

General facts

• Online discussion:
  The online discussion was active during the whole campaign. It is important to highlight that the discussion on the website was very emotive. There were also three people who tried to disturb it. But these ‘extreme’ opinions were obviously ignored by the rest of the participants.

• Comments on the articles:
  Seventy-four people gave comments on the articles published during the campaign that came out different Internet media. It was not possible to indicate the sex of nine participants. The commentators discussed the issue within a wide perspective and context, hardly reflecting on the articles. The articles mainly motivated the discussions.

Personal experience with VAW

• Online discussion:
  It was possible to conclude that from the reactions of 28 women and 21 men, there were five women who were victims of violence. Few other participants mentioned they encountered violence within their own environment.

• Comments on the articles:
  Comments from nine cases described direct experience with VAW, either personal or within their close environment.

Denouncement of VAW

• Comments on the articles:
  VAW was denounced in majority of the comments. Twenty-three people (11 men, 9 women, 3 whose sex were not indicated) denounced it explicitly in their comments. One man defended the violence. Nobody reacted on his comment.

Expression of support to the campaign

• Online discussion:
  More than half of the online participants expressed their support to the campaign, or rejected violence against women, more often violence against human beings in general. Majority of them were women (15 women, 6 men).

  During the entire discussion, some negative feedback on the campaign appeared several times, but did not make up more than a quarter of all comments. With the exception of one or two comments, the reactions did not express doubts about the sense of the whole campaign, though they tried to reduce its alarming significance by pointing out other important social problems:

  “There is more serious problem, about which nobody cares, in this state. Everybody has to solve his/her family problem him/herself, and this campaign can not change anything on it.”

  Other issues on violence also came out like the issue of violence against children, animals and men: “I am the fifth man. I am maltreated, and do you care about (it)?”

• Comments on the articles:
  Fourteen comments supported the campaign (8 women, 4 men, and 2 whose sex were not indicated).

  Nobody expressed doubts about the campaign, but there were several negative comments about the feminist background of the campaign organisers.

  Similar with the discussion on the website, a number of men (12) and two women mentioned the problem of violence against men. Four people also emphasised the seriousness of violence against children, which they considered to be far more important.

Questioning the effectiveness of the use of financial resources for the campaign

• Online discussion:
  Those who reacted negatively on the campaign expressed distrust of feminism and feminist organisations and suggested to use the funds more effectively, for example, to build safe houses for victims. “Money allocated to such projects can be better used to construct safe houses for victims.”

  The financial aspect was mentioned several times in the discussion. From their opinions, it was evident that the participants did not have information on who are involved in the campaign, where the resources come from, and the responsibilities and goals of the organisers.

• Comments on the articles:
  There were few negative comments about the financial resources, and when they did crop up, were ignored by readers.

Rejection of feminism

• Online discussion:
  Mention of feminism generally came from men though there were two instances that came from women. They characterised the feminist movement as a movement trying to gain power: “You, feminists, are smartly trying to get support from other emancipate women via ‘innocent’ campaign fighting for right of ‘innocents’. You enforce your interests also in Slovakia…You boys, who are supporters of emancipation, you need to know, that feminists want only to use us for the achievement of their interests, and then they will start to fight also against you, in case you will not subordinate them...”

  More important than the reactions on the term feminism (it was evident from the reactions that they were reacting more on the term, than on the movement itself, and they did not know any relevant information about feminism), that some of the participants, approximately five of them, understood the gender background of the violence against women:

  “I do not like the opinions that only woman role is giving the birth to children, she is only good for satisfaction of men sexual desire, or to keep house clean…according what right women subordinate men?”

  “I think that there are no women in the world who had not at least one experience with man showing his superiority over her. It does not matter, if it happens in work or home. Almost all my colleagues are men. I do not need to say, how it was difficult to assert myself. What is for man self-evident, women need to gain by hard work. And even then they look on you as on some anomaly, and they had in mouth never expressed remark: What are you doing here, you have to take care of your family and children, and do not occupy the place of our men, the creators of the life.”

• Comments on the articles:
  Fifteen entries commented negatively on feminism (11 men, 3 women).

  Positive reactions came more from women (6 women, 2 men).

  Different from the discussion on the campaign website, feminism was not linked with power ambitions. The negative reactions reflected bad portrayal of feminism in Slovak society:

  “…feminists themselves are not normal. Nobody take them right to fight for women rights. But they remind me about communists, who were also “only fighting for the rights of workers”. I am not saying that women do not have difficult life, but it is not reason to legitimate feminism.”

  There was also a reaction that showed stereotyped roles of men and women:

  “I do not know if I have to laugh or cry. I do not think, that I subordinate my wife, neither my wife suffer. Sometime I am realized that we are living too fast, and I admire my wife, that she is able manage these everyday things, like children….”

  ’It is not easy to materially and spiritually care about family. You need money for it. I do not understand why there are so many articles concerning these issues in last few years. I do not know, what the feminists want to achieve? – get as much as one can out of him?

  1. It is a man who secures family materially
  2. Women secure herself better than man
  3. Women live longer than men
  4. The law is on the side of women (in divorce, in issues of care about children, I have never heard about the case when men take a legal action against woman for .. violence (for example physical)”

  “Woman always knows how to get the man to do what she wants…”

Doubts about the statistical figures of maltreated women

• Online discussion:
  Most of the discussions focused on the name of the campaign “Fifth Women”. Four men asked about the number itself, which is the number of women who have personal experience with violence, based on statistics. According to their opinions, the number is too high. The whole discussion on the percentage of women who became victims of violence in Slovakia was quite emotional:

  “In my opinion, this high number is not realistic, and I have expected, that you will base it on some serious survey… My suspicion was right – this initiative is not undertaken by professional social worker, but feminists. And those numbers quoted in their propaganda are not real. I think that men, who strike their women, are idiots. I care about my family, and could not imagine beating my wife, or children. I do not support violence against women, but you cannot make the idiots from people in such sensitive issue, by presenting exorbitant data.”

  There were seven participants (3 men, 4 women), who defended the figures.

  (The official and more exact figures about the situation in Slovakia could help to convince those who have a tendency to make this problem appear smaller.)

• Comments on the articles:
  The figures of maltreated women were not as a ‘hot topic’ in Comments on the articles as in the case with the Online discussions. Only four people asked about the figures, but was answered back by one woman.

Attitudes towards institutions and laws

• Online discussion:
  Another very frequent topic was on various state institutions which were referred to as the police, or the government or the state in general. In almost all the comments, these institutions were referred to in a negative context. The most critical comments were made about the police, which was criticised mainly for its inability to take an action against a bully.

  “And policy…sorry for laughing. When my biologic father was striking my mum, and he even had a knife, we were hidden in next room and hold the handle, so he could not open the door. We had called to police, but when they arrived they told they could not break to the flat without reason. That they can break in only in the case, when something has already happened... Oh, my dear, that is real problem! The bully can kill you with the policy behind the doors!”

  Seven comments expressed similar views.

  The state, the government and the law were mentioned by five participants. They usually criticised the laws and government that cannot change the laws to make them more effective in eliminating violence against women. In all, the state institution received 14 negative comments, approximately the same number from women as from men.

  Only two comments tried to defend the police by saying that not all policemen are the same.

• Comments on the articles:
  Similar with the Online discussions, the effort of state institutions in eliminating VAW was the second most frequent topic among the Comments on the articles. Twenty-four people gave comments on this topic, some of them, several times. The inability of the police was criticised by seven women and two men.

  Two comments defended the police.

  Four critical comments on policies came from victims of domestic violence, or from people who had personal experiences with VAW in their close environment:

  “Let me know, whose mother beat the father. I know a lot of cases from my environment, when man beats woman. In one case he even threatened his wife that he will kill her in case she will divorce him. And how did police respond? “Until he kills you, there is nothing what we can do.” What you think, how is it to live in such a household.”

  Nine women and two men commented on the lack of effort of government.

  Two men said they were satisfied with the actual situation, and indicated a general satisfaction with the present laws that deal with VAW. However, 10 women and one man disagreed.

Causes of violence mentioned

• Online discussion:
  The participants discussed the causes of violence against women. Among the causes they mentioned were the character of the bully, his education and upbringing, the social environment, the law, family and the institutions.

• Comments on the articles:
  Readers of the articles attributed the character of the offender (man) as the cause of violence in 11 comments (8 women, 3 men).

  However, nine sent in reactions that blamed the victim (women) for provoking the violence because of their behaviour. One comment pointed out it was the woman’s fault since she married the person who already behaved violently before their marriage:

  “According to the non-governmental organisation, every fifth woman is maltreated by her husband. Ok, I am sorry. But nobody forced you to marry those men. Where were your eyes before the marriage?”

  In all cases, those comments were written by men. Two men also supposed that both partners (woman and man) bear blame for the violence in a family. One man also gave the opinion that the violence in a family was caused mainly by alcoholism and difficult financial situations in the family.

  The opinion that the education and upbringing can lead to maltreatment of women in relationships was expressed by 11 people. However, only few of them blamed low education; majority thought that upbringing was responsible for the violent behaviour of men:

  “In majority women take care and upbringing children in our society. We (women) are responsible, that our sons are spoiled and incapable individuals, who are solving their incapability in partner’s relationships by physical power.”

  In all, the 35 comments about this topic or 75% percent of them were written by men.

FINDINGS SUMMARY

Gender differences in perception of VAW

The evaluation findings acknowledged that significant differences on perceptions of VAW exist among women and men. Generally, women reacted more positively on the campaign than men. The men felt they were personally accused of the violent behaviour against women. They often emphasised that men were also victims of violence.

More men than women questioned the effectiveness of the use of financial resources for the campaign. Quite interesting, though, is that when it is men who give out negative comments on feminism, women would reply back. Generally, men perceived feminism more negatively than women: 11 men and 3 women perceived feminism negatively, while six women and only two men gave positive statements about it.

With regards to VAW, eight women and one man admitted either having a personal experience or were aware of such incidents within a close environment, indicating that women are more sensitive to this issue than men.

The significant differences among women and men were on perceptions of possible causes of VAW. One male considered “the consumer lifestyle” as the main cause of VAW. This phrase connotes gender stereotypes, crediting males with an orientation of success, and the responsibility to generate enough income to satisfy the material needs of their family. Only men gave opinions that women themselves are responsible for the violence committed against them, provoking it by their behaviour, or by choosing a partner with a disposition to violence.

Most emerging topics concerning the issue of violence against women

The most discussed topics were the possible causes of VAW, the absence or ineffective steps undertaken by the institutions of the state, weak laws, and the perception of gender differences in social and economical roles. And most especially the pervasive gender stereotypes in education and upbringing of girls and boys which came out several times in the discussions and comments.

Several myths on VAW were also voiced out which proves to show that confronting and destroying these myths which came out in the open during the campaign raised public awareness on the causes and extent of violence against women in the Slovak Republic.

Changes on public attitude towards VAW as a positive impact of the campaign

Contrary to the discussions on the campaign website, the comments that were received from the articles showed positive changes on attitudes and perceptions on VAW. The reason behind this is because there were regular new inputs and information that came out in published articles rather than on the website. But at the same time, facilitating discussions, like that on the website can bring about a positive impact that will change the flawed perception on VAW.

Strategic use of online discussions in the media campaign against VAW

The use of website discussions and infoline enabled the Fifth Women team to collect feedback on the campaign and track the changes in the perception of the issue.

The anonymity of virtual discussions tend to open doors to more personal, more candid, and more critical comments. On the other hand, the negative comments were very often given out without additional explanations. At the same, it is not as easy to change the topic of online discussions as on TV or radio.

The number of comments were not only concentrated on the VAW issue, and in several cases, the participants argued and debated among themselves. Many participants asked questions in their comments but did not receive any responses.

These findings show that efficient facilitation can better focus the online discussions on VAW, and positively affect public perception and sensitiveness towards the issue. The facilitator should be responsible for providing expert answers to questions that were raised, and keep the discussion on topics relevant to the issue of VAW.

The findings also demonstrated it is crucial to regularly bring in new information to effectively sustain the online discussion. But at the same time, too much information within a short period of time can be disadvantageous to the discussion. It was possible to map out the relationship between the amount of time that was being devoted to discussing a specific topic and the depth of the discussion about a particular topic. To better sustain and stimulate a discussion, new information should be given out once every two weeks.

Because several people with personal experiences of violence visited the webpage, it is important to keep track of them, and provide more information in assisting them which were services offered by different stakeholders.

There were also a lot of comments which referred to violence against animals and other kinds of non-gender related type violence. The URL name of the campaign's webpage (“stop violence”) probably gave the impression that the webpage is focused on violence in general. Changing the name of the website title can assist in weeding out the number of non-relevant comments.

The evaluation demonstrated that the public must also be informed of the financial resources and their how they were used, as well as about other activities the organisers were engaged on.

To get men involved and influence them to even look at VAW as a problem, it is also important to deal on stereotype perceptions of their roles.

Effectiveness of using different ICTs in campaigns on VAW

For internal communication, the different tools of ICTs were used: email, phone, fax. Emails were the most frequently used mode of communication. The several problems experienced on virtual communication like frequent misunderstandings and late or even missing getting feedback often hindered the decision-making process. On the other hand, the participatory aspect of email was emphasised, which involved all stakeholders in the process of decision-making.

The combination of regular face-to-face meetings with e-mail communication helped eliminate misunderstandings. To overcome the disadvantages of online communication, the respondents suggested organising a psycho-social training in communication and conflict-solving for all the partners involved in a project in the future.

In spite of reservations on ICTs, and importance of personal meetings were highlighted by several respondents, ICTs, and especially the Internet played a crucial role in the success of the campaign. As shown, the difference between estimated and real number of targeted people by the campaign (see Table), the potential of using the Internet was much higher than was originally estimated in the design of the campaign. People visited the website 11 times more than was estimated, with the number of visitors even bigger than the number of people who called on the infoline (3,121 calls on the infoline, 5,672 website visits).

It is difficult to identify the underlying causes of the preferences on the different tools of ICTs, but probably the low awareness about the opportunities and possible applications of Internet tools in the fight against violence on women coupled with a lack of ICT skills and equipment among the local women’s NGOs played a significant role in their decisions.

Considering the still increasing number of Internet users, the effectiveness of the Internet and the telephone in providing background information about the media campaign on VAW must be assessed in the case of a next campaign.

Incorporating Learning into Organisational Work

As part of the evaluation, several recommendations were proposed in relation to the Fifth Women website and in the internal and external communication during the VAW media campaign projects. The findings will be incorporated in the design of the new webpage of EsFem (a member organisation of the Fifth Women). The evaluation results also provided very useful information for organising succeeding VAW campaigns even as these can be applied in all activities involving communication with the public.

Dissemination of Evaluation Results

The evaluation results were shared with the members of the Initiative Fifth Women. They plan to share the findings of the first part of the evaluation concerning gender differences in the comments of women and men on the campaign, and the issue of VAW with other women’s NGOs and those that address the issue of violence against women.

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