Women are fragile and exposed and this didn’t quite change with time, as suffragettes tried to promote strength, equality and power defining women. We live in a deeply feminist era, where social programs are particularly tailored on women’s rights, as a way to unify society and promote a symmetric gender perception among men and women at the same time.
The sad part is that attitudes towards gender differences have not evolved to a higher degree of respect, hence women are still subjected to assault and sexual harassment.
Rape is something societies must still confront with but there are certain initiatives that work to strengthen the protection barriers for women of all ages. Statistics recently showed that a particular college rape prevention program shows high rates of success, for teenagers that learn how to behave in such situations and how to avoid dramatic consequences.
Based on this program, first year female college students are taught to avoid rape, representing a rare success to an issue that has been resistant to many prevention efforts. Sexual violence is a very popular issue on college campuses, with one in five female student being raped on a yearly basis. It seems that the most difficult year for a young woman is the first one.
This training sessions helped first year students at three Canadian campuses to learn self-defense and clearly define personal sexual boundaries.
Statistic show that only five percent of freshman college students who went through the training session were raped during the following year, compared to 10% of others who were only given brochures on assault prevention. These results show a degree of risk cut in half, considering the numbers. It seems that attempted rapes were also lower in the training groups, with 3% such situations occurring in the training group, compared to 9% risk in the other group of women.
The study was based on analysis performed on 900 students with ages ranging from 17 to 24, at the Universities of Calgary, Windsor and Guelph. The research was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the University of Windsor.
This is not the first attempt to stop the high levels of risk when it comes to rape in freshmen women. Some other universities have already tried various rape prevention or self-defense programs, but few of them have been tested and those who have, didn’t help in strengthening the effects. 20% of women are assaulted during college years and with the help of a more efficient program numbers can change dramatically, to the benefit of the more delicate of genders.
Image Source: cargocollective.com