Male violence against women is an underground phenomenon. There are many and many reasons why women find it very difficult to get out of situations of abuse at home. One of these concerns precisely the fact of not having sufficient economic autonomy and not feeling adequate or able to find work, also as an effect of psychological violence which leads to the annihilation of self-esteem. In addition to this, in fact, when a woman embarks on a path of escape from violence she often encounters enormous difficulties in re-entering the world of work and consequently acquiring economic independence.
The experience of anti-violence centers with women involved in situations of violence has led us to recognize the intimate and necessary link between getting out of violence and recovering full autonomy from a social and economic point of view. The process of social and economic empowerment, aimed at guaranteeing the general well-being of women, promoting their independence and autonomy in making choices, as well as reducing vulnerability and exposure to violence, assumes fundamental importance in making and efficient every escape route from violence. In fact, although it is essential to act with protection and reception systems to preserve women's lives, it is equally essential to implement global interventions that aim to prevent the experience of violence from being translated into a real "social disadvantage" and to ensure that each one rediscovers the capacity and power to face the problems and issues that concern him autonomously and independently.
All of this makes it necessary to provide for different interventions at different times in the path of building their independence for women, according to the specific needs of the moment: empowerment and self-esteem support paths, income support measures, access to quality services and affordable, work placement programs are components of different interventions within an integrated strategy.
One of the most important needs that emerges from the paths with women concerns the management of care loads, which significantly impacts on women's lives, in particular on their opportunities to enter and re-enter the world of work. In addition to the general and chronic absence of childcare services or assistance for elderly family members, there is in fact, on the one hand, the lack of a family and/or friendship network, which often characterizes the lives of women who turn to anti-violence centres, and, on the other hand, the difficulty of accessing welfare measures due to standardized bureaucratic procedures which do not respond to the specific needs of women who have suffered violence and which often prevent them from benefiting from it (e.g. requesting residency as a requirement to take advantage of some services, difficulty in leaving the perpetrator's family status or in obtaining an ISEE separate from that of the perpetrator).
In addition to this, there is also the difficulty of maintaining a job having to reconcile life times which in the paths of escape from violence are complicated by a series of further commitments that women have to fulfill, for example meetings with social and health services , counseling center interviews and court hearings that require preparation beforehand and recovery time afterward. If the specific leave for women victims of violence has been an important measure, it is also important to say that it is a half-conquest because often women would need more time than that foreseen by the leave. Therefore, the recognition of workplaces remains important with respect to the specific needs of women involved in the paths of escape from violence, creating welcoming, non-judgmental environments that make their lives easier.
For this, d.i.Re is committed to training in the workplace with respect to the complexity of the phenomenon and the possibilities for male and female workers to be active actors of cultural change and concrete support for colleagues who find themselves in situations of violence.