One in three women is a victim of physical and/or sexual violence at least once in her life. That means we all know at least one woman who has been affected by violence. It could be a sister, a best friend, or a colleague. Violence against women concerns us all!

Violence against women? That doesn't affect anyone I know. Far too many people still think this way. In fact, violence against women is a sad reality in all social classes and age groups. Sexual assaults, bullying, stalking and other forms of sexualised violence occur every day. According to statistics, more than 12 million women nationwide have been affected by physical and/or sexualised violence at least once in their lives. That is every third woman. Still, few people actively stand up against gender-based violence even though 96 % of the population in Germany reject and condemn such assaults.

THE FEDERAL MINISTRY FOR FAMILY AFFAIRS, SENIOR CITIZENS, WOMEN AND YOUTH (BMFSFJ) ASKED US TO:

Develop a campaign against violence against women that:

  • Involves the whole of society and motivates people to become active for the cause, so that more affected women – and affected men – have the courage to defend themselves when they experience physical, sexual or psychological violence
  • Makes more people close to those affected take notice and provide support
  • Helps all affected persons who are threatened by domestic violence find support, especially in times of crisis such as the current corona pandemic

STRATEGY & EXECUTION

Previous campaigns against domestic violence have attempted to do so through images showing beaten or crying desperate victims. This reinforces the idea of the “helpless victim” and the power the perpetrators have over them. Our idea takes a new path. We want to encourage everyone to take action against violence against women. Our campaign draws attention to what every one of us can do to help. To do this, we brought the topic into the personal reality of people's lives. We brought specialised partner organisations that provide help and advice together to create the platform www.stärker-als-gewalt.de, combining access to a variety of nationwide support and counselling services and empowering people to take action. 

WHAT WE HAVE ACHIEVED

  • Tagesschau lead story on 25.11.2019 on the launch of the initiative 
  • Acquisition of more than 100 companies, associations, organisations and municipalities as supporters of the initiative within the first year
  • Involving around 20 high-reach content creators whose posts have achieved 7.5 million impressions 
  • Up to 26,000 supermarkets participating in the "Not Safe at Home?" campaign 
  • Increase in enquiries to help and counselling centres by approx. 20% in 2020, in particular from the environment of affected people