By Ashanthi Ekanayake –

Ashanthi Ekanayake

A leading conglomerate in Sri Lanka in collaboration with a well-known sports-wear brand is launching a Women’s Day initiative in Colombo, featuring a night running circuit close to the day we have come to peg euphemistically as women’s day. The initiative per se seeks to improve safety for women. The initiative seeks to create a safe space for jogging and walking at night, which is a laudable enough venture at first glance. As a woman of a certain age this day and any celebration which is to take place around it, under the pretext of celebrating women, or purportedly for their safety, wellbeing and benefit usually makes me naturally suspicious. Many of these celebrations are focused on one single day of a year, are very often tone deaf, ineffectual and very often one sided. I wonder where the “working-girls” who walk the streets to feed their families trying to hide from the prying eyes of the law might find safety as their middleclass/upper crust, sisters run or jog or walk in safety for their health. The elite “sistahs” are being offered discounts on the posh sportwear they buy around this time. Will the money/profits made find its way to my poorer sisters? I do not mean to criticize harshly, while any small gesture towards making life easy for my sisters, who come in varying ages, sizes, colors, shapes and races and even classes is welcome, I cannot but feel sad that when one group is secure another is left out in the open without safety because they are caught in the glare. The same light which makes the path safe for one group makes it unsafe for another. Where have we gone wrong? Where are we getting it wrong?

On that note let us turn to the topic of Gender Based Violence and Harassment and keep it separate from SGBV which is also related to the “sexual” and inter-gender and intragender-based sexual and gender-based violence. Gender Based Violence and Harassment (GBVH) and Sexual and Gender Based Violence and Harassment (SGBVH) have come to mean different things and it is imperative that we as a society become aware of this and start acting on prevention.  A UGC document describes SGBV thus:

“Sexual and gender-based violence refers to acts that inflict physical, mental, or sexual harm or suffering, threats of such acts, coercion and other deprivations of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life based on one’s gender and/or sexuality. It includes sexual harassment, domestic violence (DM) and intimate partner violence (IPV) amongst other practices (based on the UN Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women, 1993).”

The dropping of the “S” or its addition makes no difference then it appears. However, some confusion remains. In any case that violence and harassment of any group needs to be prevented can be accepted as a basic truth and need though the terminology is confusing.

Research shows that many experience forms of gender-based violence and harassment (GBVH) in the context of their work/work places. This might include a wide range of experiences, from subtle expressions of hostility or mild aggression, such as cold shouldering, different and undignified treatment, to actual physical assault, which can also be of a sexual nature (e.g., sexual harassment or assault).

To look at this phenomenon in a comprehensive manner Gender Based Violence and Harassment is an umbrella term for harmful acts—physical, sexual, psychological, or economic—directed at individuals based on gender, rooted in unequal power dynamics. It is accepted as disproportionately affecting women and girls, often occurring in workplaces, supply chains, or public spaces. These acts committed against women might be physical violence, sexual assault, verbal harassment (shouting, swearing), emotional abuse (humiliation), and economic abuse (restricting financial/educational access) or even threats of such acts. Abuse can take place across genders and affect all genders, but are most often perpetrated by men against women and girls.

However, the sad truth, or even paradox which challenges terminology is that gender-based harassment is quite often often initiated and perpetrated by the same gender one ascribes to simply due to power-dynamics. Even then women are more vulnerable. The fact that one in three women experience physical or sexual violence in their lifetime has come to be a generalization. GBVH is a critical issue in the workplace requiring policies, training, and risk assessments to ensure safety. Very often one looks for the more conspicuous manifestations such as demands for sexual favors for jobs, inappropriate jokes, or unwanted physical contact. However, bullying and spreading of malicious rumors and victim blaming if the victim fights back have become more virulent aspects of the issue, which have come to be viewed as more innocuous.

Bullying includes unjustified criticism, micromanagement and false complaints regarding individuals, and even subtle acts such as isolating a person and cliquing against a small group and spreading of false and malicious information. Sometimes GBVH manifests as discrimination by treating someone differently or unfairly by deliberately changing working arrangements to inconvenience or confuse a person, refusing leave or flexibility, ignoring a person’s requests, questions, and complaints and even setting unrealistic and unreasonable work targets. Some of this might manifest itself as psychological abuse and intimidation through isolation and passive aggression. On occasion it is something simple such as a refusal of a table to work at or directions or purposely refusing to provide information regarding work arrangements.

The Women’s Chamber of Industry and Commerce, Sri Lanka, shared a post in recent times which states that 72% of women experience work place bullying, and 65% experience discrimination and that 63% experience sexual or physical harassment. This data has been taken from a study by Kantar Sri Lanka. Thus bullying is more prevalent than other types of harassment.   

Sadly, before justice might be served many who undergo and experience GBVH experience victim-blaming. There are psychological, social, and structural mechanisms that drive those in powerful positions to shift the blame from perpetrators to survivors. Rather than just being a malicious act, victim-blaming often functions as a defensive mechanism to maintain a sense of safety and order in the world.

 Very often both perpetrators and those who should prevent GBVH shift the blame to victims to protect their own psychological well-being. They can easily trick themselves into believing that victims are partially if not fully responsible for their misfortune. “It is her own fault’” is a phrase that is often heard if the victim attempts to fight back sometimes, out of desperation in kind. Very often the word of a group comes to be accepted against the protests of one innocent person.

Another factor is the Just-World Hypothesis, which is the belief that people generally get what they deserve—good things happen to good people, and bad things happen to bad people. The acceptance that a random, even “innocent” person can be targeted is frightening, so people blame the victim to avoid acknowledging that the world is inherently unjust. Thus, the victim needs to be tarred and feathered. Through all this and the act of “othering” blamers create a distinction between themselves and the victim, believing they are “different” and therefore safer. Very often the victim is said to behave in a strange manner.

In addition to these aspects which promote a culture of violence, there are additional social conditionings and factors such as patriarchal Norms and conservative values. Many societies and even revered establishments have deeply ingrained patriarchal structures that view women as inherently subordinate or even like goods and chattel i.e. property, making it easier to blame them for deviating from “traditional” behavior. In addition, researchers say that during the shift to modernization a reliance on traditional, sometimes rigid gender roles has come to perpetuate victim-blaming specially in post-colonial setting such as Sri Lanka.

What is necessary then is a survivor-centered, accountability-focused preventive approach. While victim-blaming shifts focus to the survivor’s actions to explain the violence, the alternative paradigm focuses on the perpetrator, societal structures (both psychological and social institutions), and systemic accountability to stop the violence.   Shifting responsibility from victim to perpetrator involves highlighting aspects of accountability whereby the responsibility for violence and harassment rests solely on the person committing it, not the victim. Recognizing that victim-blaming is a tactic often used by abusers to justify their actions and by society to minimize the severity of the offense is a very integral part of seeing that justice is served. There needs to be a focus on behavior and a shift from “Why didn’t she leave?” to “Why does s/he abuse?”.

There needs to be Survivor-Centered support by believing survivors and through prioritizing support and validation rather than questioning their actions or questioning their credibility. There must be empowerment and safety through the provision of safe, confidential spaces, resources, and legal aid, rather than further traumatizing survivors with scrutiny. Reversing self-blame and actively countering the internalized shame or self-blame that many survivors experience as a result of societal pressure remains a very necessary aspect of offering solutions.

Systemic and institutional changes such as ending impunity by ensuring that legal systems and organizations actually hold individual perpetrators accountable, is very necessary because reversing the culture of impunity protects abusers.  Implementing clear, enforced policies against GBVH in workplaces, schools, and communities rather than dismissing or mishandling complaints remains an important aspect to preventing it from taking place again. In addition, shifting media narratives to focus on the crime rather than scrutinizing the victim’s behavior is also an important aspect of making society a safe place for both survivors and their families. Such a change would also work toward prevention of recurrence of GBVH.

The “mean girl” is a stereotype that has become commonly accepted in media and popular culture. This is as harmful as toxic masculinity. Then societal norms and commonly accepted phenomenon should be challenged and revised to restore healthy relationship dynamics to prevent bullying, violence and harassment before it happens. Challenging the cognitive bias that “good things only happen to good people” and that victims must have done something wrong to deserve the violence is also something that needs to be addressed in this aspect.

Very often when bullying or harassment takes place there are those who simply watch and wait as if at a playground fight. They feel that it is not their place or they feel it is not their fight therefore bystander intervention needs to be normalized because empathy is a key societal need. Encouraging individuals to intervene safely when they witness harassment or abusive behavior, rather than remaining silent or acting as a passive observer should be something that institutions which seek to create safe work-spaces focus on. Challenging harassment and speaking up against victim-blaming comments and the holistic approach that recognizes GBVH as a structural, societal problem rooted in gender inequality, rather than an issue caused by the choices of individual victims needs to be accepted and put into practice.

However, at the cost of repetition, no mechanism nor regulation will serve their purposes if we as a society lack empathy. Therefore, when we celebrate Women’s Day 2026 lets us be mindful of all the women who are our own sisters. One group should not be empowered at the cost of another. One group’s safety should not be at the cost of another group being caught in the glare.

The theme for International Women’s Day 2026 is said to be “Give to Gain,”  which emphasizes upon accelerating gender equality through purposeful investment in women. That has a mercenary ring to it. However, it apparently highlights the power of reciprocity: when individuals, organizations and communities invest in women, so opportunities expand, systems strengthen and societies thrive. So this Women’s Day let us encourage our workplaces to examine themselves for instances of GBVH so that they may invest in better futures and safe spaces for our sisters.