by Eve Ensler
The Issue: Violence Against Women
The goal of “Until the Violence Stops: NYC” was to bring the issue of violence against women and girls front and center. In order to understand the grave importance of this cause, one must know that violence is an issue that plagues all women in every part of the world. To better show the depth and epidemic scope of violence against women, V-Day has compiled a list of statistics and resources that demonstrate the impact of violence against women on the individual and the community.
International Facts: Violence Against Women Is a Global Issue
At least one in three women has been beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise assaulted in her lifetime.1
Two million girls are at risk for female genital mutilation each year.2
Seventy-nine countries have no legislation against domestic violence.3
Violence against women is most prevalent in Latin America, Africa, North America, Australia, and New Zealand.4
Fewer than one in three female victims of violence report their victimization to the police.5
Globally, fewer than half of the victims who reported their cases to the police were satisfied with the response.6
About half of women surveyed believe it is acceptable for a husband to beat his wife under certain circumstances.7
National Facts: Violence Against Women Is a U.S. Issue
Nearly one third of American women report being physically or sexually abused by a husband or boyfriend at some time.8
Someone is raped in the United States every two minutes.9
One in four women will experience domestic violence in her lifetime.10
Homicide is the leading cause of death for women on the job in the United States.11
From 1976 to 2002, 81.1 percent of female-victim homicides in the United States were sex-related.12
New York City Facts: Violence Against Women Is a Local Issue
In 2004, the New York City Domestic Violence Bilingual Hotline received 155,375 calls, a 36 percent increase over 2003.13
Each year there are a reported 584 murders, 2,015 rapes, and 20,702 felonious assaults in New York City.14
Every year fifty thousand people, mostly women and children, are forcibly brought to the United States. Many of them end up in New York City, working for little or no money as prostitutes, domestic workers, and sweatshop workers.15
Workplace Facts: Violence Against Women Is Expensive—Physically, Emotionally, and Spiritually—for All of Us
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have estimated that the annual cost of lost productivity due to domestic violence equals $727.8 million, with more than 7.9 million paid workdays lost each year.16
The national health care costs of domestic violence are high, with direct medical and mental health care services for victims amounting to nearly $4.1 billion.17
Ninety-four percent of corporate security directors surveyed rank domestic violence as a high security problem at their company.18
Prison Facts: Violence Against Women Breeds Violence
Forty-eight percent to 88 percent of women inmates in the United States had experienced sexual or physical abuse before coming to prison (as many as 90 percent in New York and Ohio prisons) and suffer post-traumatic stress disorder.19
An estimated 56 percent of the abused women in prison said that their abuse had included a rape, and another 13 percent reported an attempted rape.20
V-Day. A Movement to End Violence Against Women
Founded in 1998 on the principle that art inspires activism, V-Day is a global movement to end violence against women and girls that raises funds and awareness through benefit productions of Eve Ensler’s award-winning play The Vagina Monologues. V-Day is a catalyst that promotes creative events to revitalize the spirit of existing anti-violence organizations and generates broader attention for the fight to stop violence against women and girls, including rape, battery, incest, female genital mutilation (FGM), and sexual slavery.
Through V-Day campaigns, local volunteers and college students produce annual performances of The Vagina Monologues to raise awareness and funds for anti-violence groups within their own communities. In 2006 more than 2,700 V-Day benefit events were produced by volunteer activists in the United States and around the world, educating millions of people about the reality of violence against women and girls.
Performance is just the beginning. To date, the V-Day movement has raised more than $40 million and educated millions about the issue and the efforts to end it. V-Day produces large-scale benefits and innovative gatherings, films, and campaigns to educate people and change their social attitudes, including the documentary Until the Violence Stops; community briefings on the missing and murdered women of Juárez, Mexico; the December 2003 V-Day delegation trip to Israel, Palestine, Egypt, and Jordan; the Afghan Women’s Summit in Kabul; the March 2004 delegation to India; the European Organizer Workshop in Brussels in March 2005; the Stop Rape Contest; the Indian Country Project; and Love Your Tree.
V-Day has crafted international educational, media, and PSA campaigns, launched the Karama Program in the Middle East, reopened shelters, and funded more than five thousand community-based anti-violence programs, as well as safe houses in Kenya, South Dakota, Egypt, and Iraq.
V-Day events have taken place in all 50 United States and in more than 112 countries from Egypt to Australia to Kenya to the Philippines.
Today V-Day is a model of empowerment philanthropy and public awareness, inviting women and men to use art and performance to raise funds and awareness in their own communities. The V in V-Day stands for “Victory,” “Valentine,” and “Vagina.”
To learn even more about V-Day, go to www.vday.org.
Until the Violence Stops: The Festival
Conceived by its founder, Eve Ensler, and produced by V-Day in June 2006, “Until the Violence Stops: NYC” brought the issue of violence against women and girls to the New York City streets, subways, and buses, putting women, their empowerment, and safety at center stage. This New York City–focused campaign utilized the key elements of performance and theater to raise consciousness and funds and expand the dialogue about violence against women and girls locally, nationally, and globally.
With marquee events, performances by celebrated actors, original works by noted authors, community involvement throughout the five boroughs, a citywide advertising campaign, and a run through Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, “Until the Violence Stops: NYC” issued a call to action not just to all New Yorkers, but to the whole world: Demand a halt to violence against women and girls and become an active participant in ending it.
“Through V-Day, we have witnessed the power of art to transform and galvanize change,” stated Ensler. “It’s time to be bold, to amplify our efforts, and to take our movement to end violence against women to the next level. V-Day was born in New York City, and ‘Until the Violence Stops: NYC’ took our message directly to the people of New York. Together, we will make New York City the safest place on earth for women and girls.”
Joined by artists and community organizations, V-Day worked to raise the awareness level in New York City, educate people about violence against women and girls, and encourage citizens to take action to end it. We are poised at a historic moment for women and girls worldwide, and the festival was an unprecedented opportunity to create change around the issue of violence against women and girls.
As with the V-Day model established with The Vagina Monologues, “Until the Violence Stops” was designed to be replicated. Following the success of the festival in New York City, activists in Kentucky and Ohio are producing “Until the Violence Stops” festivals in their communities in summer 2007, and festivals are being planned for 2008 in select cities including Paris, Los Angeles, and Providence, Rhode Island. All festivals will be produced locally, with local talent and highlighting local anti-violence groups, under the guidance and support of V-Day.
Action: You Can Help End Violence Against Women and Girls
Here are the simple concrete steps that can change the world—your world:
Produce a V-Day Event in Your Community
V-Day revolves around art and activism, using theater as a grassroots mechanism to raise awareness and funds. There are three ways to produce a V-Day event in your community:
1. Stage a Reading of A Memory, a Monologue, a Rant, and a Prayer
The essays in this anthology make for a powerful evening of theater and action. Below we have provided you with a brief outline of what it takes to have a successful benefit performance of this evocative piece. Contact V-Day for guidelines, direction, and rights by e-mailing [email protected].
Sign up with V-Day. To be an official organizer, you must apply to V-Day. Organizers must be approved by V-Day, and the script and an organizer materials kit will be made available upon your signing up.
Assemble a production team. You will need a core group of dedicated volunteers to help you produce your event. Invite as many people as you can: women and men of all ages with different backgrounds, interests, and skills.
Secure a venue and reserve dates. Don’t underestimate the number of people who will want to come to your event. Try checking with your city’s parks and recreation offices; they can tell you about venues that aren’t common knowledge and might be more affordable for charitable events. Research publicity, support, and other resources. Are there props available that you can use? Is there an in-house stage manager? Sound technician? Lighting? Investigate your options to make sure you are getting the best resources at the best cost.
Secure a fiscal sponsor and pursue event sponsors. Your event should have both a fiscal sponsor and an event sponsor (who may or may not be the same). A fiscal sponsor is a qualified nonprofit organization that provides the financial administration and oversight necessary for your event to receive tax-deductible donations. This will enable your event to have nonprofit status as well as permit donors to claim the tax deductions to which they are entitled. The event sponsor is a person, organization, or business that supports the show financially or provides performance space, production assistance, or other in-kind support.
Select beneficiaries. Beneficiaries should be qualified 501(c)(3) organizations in your community that are already working to stop violence against women and girls or are providing direct aid to victims. Such organizations include battered women’s shelters, rape crisis centers, stop-rape education programs, and similar direct service programs for women and girls.
Secure a rehearsal space. It will be important to secure a reliable and adequately sized space in which you and your team can work and create comfortably.
Hold auditions. Publicize your auditions and be sure to welcome everyone who is interested, regardless of acting experience.
Organize fund-raisers. Raise money for your production by holding fund-raisers, such as film festivals, concerts, silent auctions, dance parties, and bake sales.
Get the word out about your event. Create and distribute posters, fliers, brochures, postcards, and so on. Be sure to follow V-Day’s identity guidelines; contact [email protected] for more information.
Create press releases and contact media outlets. Use your event to raise awareness about violence against women by publicizing the event in local print, radio, television, and Internet outlets. Be sure to include local statistics and information from your beneficiaries about violence in your own community.
2. Stage a Festival: Bring “Until the Violence Stops” to Your Community
“Until the Violence Stops” is a two-week awareness and fund-raising festival. By gathering anti-violence artists, actors, business, and civic leaders in your community, you can make a difference. To learn how to produce the festival in your community, contact [email protected]. V-Day provides guidelines to producers, organizations, and local activists.
3. Stage a V-Day Benefit of The Vagina Monologues
Every year V-Day benefit productions of playwright/founder Eve Ensler’s award-winning play The Vagina Monologues take place at thousands of locations around the world, raising money for local organizations in their communities that are working to end violence against women and girls. Local college students and local community activists and volunteers organize these events—people just like you. The event can be large or small; the impact is always profound. For more information, visit vday.org/organize.
Share Your Story. Ask for Help.
Violence against women is very much a silent epidemic in the United States, with sexual violence remaining one of the most underreported crimes. If you have been the victim of violence and/or abuse, reporting the crime and telling your story is a powerful tool in the fight to end violence against women and girls. Organizations exist that offer resources, support, facts, and counseling, so don’t hesitate to reach out for help. In helping yourself heal, you can help bring the issue of violence to the forefront and let other women and girls know that they are not alone.
Volunteer
Donate time and/or resources to local organizations that address violence against women. You can volunteer at or donate to your local domestic violence shelter. Domestic violence shelters provide counseling and programs specifically designed to help victims of abuse move past their trauma and away from abusive relationships. Help ensure that these services are broadly accessible to underserved communities. Visit Feminist.com’s Anti-Violence Resource Guide (www.feminist.com/antiviolence). This comprehensive guide features a wide range of listings, including emergency hotlines, national organizations against domestic violence, publications divided by topic, links to violence-against-women websites, and many other helpful resources.
Donate to V-Day
Join us; help V-Day enact its mission to raise awareness and funds to end violence against women and girls! Donate to V-Day at http://www.vday.org/donate.
Payments by check (make checks payable to V-Day) or credit card (with card number and expiration date) may also be sent to:
V-Day Administrative Offices
127 University Avenue
Berkeley, CA 94710
Please include your name and address with all contributions. For additional information or to contribute by telephone, please call the V-Day administrative offices at 510-841-4025. (This number is for donations and administration only. For all other V-Day business, please call 212-645-8329.)
Sign Up for V-Mail
Get news of actions, opportunities, and performances, as well as the latest messages from Eve Ensler. Get involved, and stay involved: www.vday.org/vmail.
1. Amnesty International, launch report, “It’s in Our Hands: Stop Violence Against Women,” 2004.
2. A. Lewnes, “Changing a Harmful Social Convention: Female Genital Mutilation/Cutting,” Innocenti Digest 12, October 2005.
3. Amnesty International report, “The State of the World’s Human Rights,” 2006.
4. Sushma Kapoor, “Domestic Violence Against Women and Girls.” Preliminary Edition. UNICEF/Innocenti Digest 6, June 2000.
5. United Nations Crime and Justice Information Network overview (www.uncjin.org/CICP/cicp.html#overview).
6. Ibid.
7. World Health Organization, “Multi-Country Study on Women’s Health and Domestic Violence Against Women,” 2005, chapters 3 and 4.
8. L. Heise, M. Ellsberg, and M. Gottemoeller. Ending Violence Against Women. Population Reports, Series L, no. 11, December 1999.
9. U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, National Crime Victimization Survey, Criminal Victimization, 2005.
10. Patricia Tjaden and Nancy Thoennes. National Institute of Justice research report, “Extent, Nature, and Consequences of Intimate Partner Violence,” July 2000.
11. “Violence in the Workplace: Risk Factors and Prevention Strategies,” National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health—DHHS (NIOSH) Publication no. 96–100, July 1996.
12. U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2002.
13. Urban Resource Institute (www.uriny.org/dvHome.php
).
14. New York Police Department, “CompStat Unit Report,” vol. 10. no. 14, 2002.
15. Francis T. Miko and Grace (Jea-Hyun) Park, Congressional Research Service, report for Congress, “Trafficking in Women and Children: The U.S. and International Response,” March 18, 2002.
16. “Costs of Intimate Partner Violence Against Women in the United States, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2003.”
17. Ibid.
18. Ibid.
19. Amnesty International USA, “Women in Prison: A Fact Sheet” (www.amnestyusa.org/women/womeninprison.html).
20. Trace L. Snell, Women in Prison, Survey of State Prison Inmates, 1991. Bureau of Statistics: March 1994, p. 6.
We dedicate this book to Peace.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We are deeply grateful and give thanks to the following people who helped us create this book:
ACLU Women’s Rights Project
Altria Group
Avon
Lea Beresford
Diane Berry
Fran Berry
Carole Black
Kemery Bloom
The Bloomberg Foundation
Mama Cash
Deborah Colson
Katie Danzinger
Diana DeVegh
Abigail Disney
Cody Dobkins
Robert, Cynthia, and
Erin Doyle
Laura Ensler
