Gender-Based Violence: What Employers Can Do to Lead Change

By: Lori Kiely, Regional President of Berkshire Bank

Janis Broderick, Executive Director of Elizabeth Freeman Center

Donna Haghighat, CEO of the Women’s Fund of Western MA

Elizabeth Freeman Center’s hotline was eerily quiet in March and April. Then in May, the calls started pouring in at an unprecedented rate. There was the woman whose boyfriend threatened to kill her, the man whose husband attacked him. A mom was fleeing her apartment with her children to escape an abusive partner, now had nowhere to live, and an individual who didn’t think they could survive any more emotional abuse from their family.

COVID-19 has increased the danger and the severity of domestic and sexual violence. People are confined at home with their abusers, children are in harm’s way, many social services are shuttered or overwhelmed, and isolation in these circumstances can be a tool of psychological torture. Economic pressures and job loss exacerbate the danger and restrict options for fleeing or finding safety.

Even before COVID-19, the level of domestic violence in Berkshire County was alarmingly high. The county was rocked by 11 domestic violence murders in five years and had a rate of protection order filings 57% higher than the state average by population. Each year, Elizabeth Freeman Center helps over 2,000 people survive, flee, or heal from abuse or assault. If you aren’t in a situation like the survivors above, you likely know someone that may be — a family member, friend, or coworker. You may not know what they are going through.

As a part of the broader community, businesses like Berkshire Bank can be instrumental in providing support to employees experiencing gender-based violence. The business community in Western Massachusetts can be an innovator and leader in providing workplace solutions to help individuals at risk.

Berkshire Bank recently formed a partnership with the non-profit FreeFrom, creating pathways to financial security and long-term safety for survivors. Berkshire Bank took proactive action and enhanced its existing protections to provide its approximately 1,500 employees with paid and protected leave to manage the consequences of intimate partner violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking. Employees now have additional paid leave to seek medical and/or mental health care, secure victim services, locate housing, attend child custody and/or legal proceedings, as well as other related matters, all without having to forego a paycheck or use vacation/sick leave.

While expanding these types of benefits for its employees, businesses can leverage local organizations such as the Elizabeth Freeman Center, the domestic and sexual violence response center for Berkshire County. The Center has remained open throughout the pandemic and provides free and confidential help, including emergency shelter, counseling, court support, and other resources/classes. Additionally, The Women’s Fund of Western Massachusetts is a non-profit organization that fuels progress toward gender equity and is working toward a goal of freedom from violence and abuse for women and girls in Western Massachusetts.

How can your business improve the support of employees experiencing gender-based violence? Start by ensuring that your corporate policies and practices are in place and support survivors of gender-based violence, including fully paid and protected leave. You can also commit to educating your employees on the impacts of gender-based violence and how to identify it. Work to improve gender equity and diversity in the workplace, and lastly, provide financial and volunteer support to organizations that are working to address gender-based violence. They can’t do the work without support.

If you’re an individual wanting to do more, the book No Visible Bruises by Rachel Louise Snyder is an excellent introduction to the scope of the problem. You can read the FreeFrom and ‘me too’ report to learn how intimate partner violence affects women of color during COVID-19. If you are someone who can donate, consider giving to Elizabeth Freeman Center or FreeFrom. Tell friends, family, coworkers, and neighbors that help exists.

As a community, we must show up for one another. Our businesses must set a good example by showing up for intimate partner violence survivors and the organizations that provide help, hope, and healing.

If you are in crisis, the 24/7 hotline at Elizabeth Freeman Center can be reached at 866–401–2425.

To learn more about how your company can better support its employees who have experienced gender-based violence, contact Amy Durrence, FreeFrom Director of Systems Change Initiatives (amy.durrence@freefrom.org)