Angela Marie MacDougall: Gender-Based Violence Is the ‘Pandemic Within a Pandemic’

Angela Marie MacDougall was fighting a pandemic long before COVID-19.

Gender-based violence and abuse was already a crisis, says MacDougall, the executive director of the Battered Women’s Support Services.

And it’s now a “pandemic within a pandemic,” she says, as COVID-19 has brought increased abuse and isolation in “compounding the experiences of domestic violence and sexual violence for women.”

In this latest instalment of the Salt Spring Forum series of video interviews with experts on various aspects of the pandemic, MacDougall speaks with Kisae Petersen, the executive director of Islanders Working Against Violence.

MacDougall talks about how her organization, like others, had to adapt quickly to new social distancing rules in order to keep providing help to women. Increased isolation means many women have been cut off from their social network of family, friends and co-workers, and support services have to find new ways to reach them, shifting online and making chat-based services available.

MacDougall believes not enough has been done to raise awareness about the services available to women during isolation. Governments at all levels should have done more to prioritize women’s safety in these times, she says.

“We really wanted those leaders to make a statement about victims, for those that are living with abusive partners, and to make a statement that was to say that your physical safety is more important than the fear of transmission of the virus,” says MacDougall. Governments should have stressed this message and highlight the services still available, she added.

Isolation and emotional abuse are two key risk factors for gender-based physical violence and abuse. Isolation, where an abusive partner finds ways to cut off their victim from their support networks, may be masked as being attentive or caring. Emotional abuse is anything that makes someone feel bad about themselves. Both are control and power tactics used by abusive partners.

“These are very, very vital and often not noticed, because of how subtle it can be,” says MacDougall, who believes that violence is often undetected before it gets physical.

“It’s the ultimate expression of power and control to kill another,” says MacDougall. Understanding the specific conditions of each circumstance is crucial to help a woman navigate through the risks.

‘Race is a factor’

MacDougall cautions there is “no universal woman in Canada.” As a reckoning against systemic racism has spread across North America, she sees an opportunity to examine our history rooted in colonization and enslavements of Africans and Indigenous People.

“Canada has struggled in a big way to recognize that race is a factor in society. We’ve often looked to the United States as being the problem,” says MacDougall. “We need to look at Canada and look at particular versions of racism, such as anti-Indigenous racism and anti-Black racism.”

MacDougall also believes that we need to understand the experiences of women from an intersectional point of view — how social identities such as race and class, and gender, intersect and compound.

MacDougall explains how Indigenous women, Black women and Women of Colour often don’t trust the police system because of the system’s inherent roots in white supremacy. For example, Indigenous women are overrepresented in police checks in Vancouver. That’s why we need to centre the experiences of women of colour in this moment.

“Women are marginalized and oppressed through the function of Canadian society that is centred in European skin colour and worldview,” says MacDougall. “We need to recognize how ill-equipped we as a society are in keeping all our women safe.”

Funding is one way to help fill such gaps. Despite being recognized as an essential service during the pandemic, organizations like Battered Women’s Support Services and others still have to apply for funding.

“It’s jarring and unbelievable to think that how much of a social problem gender-based violence is. And yet we are not funded,” says MacDougall. Funding is needed to ramp up outreach programs and support for women, such as counselling and transition housing, to make sure such services don’t fall short during the pandemic.

“I hope that the nimbleness [of providing funding] can increase, especially going into this second wave.”

MacDougall also emphasizes that we need to be more cognizant of the vulnerability of children in abusive households going into the second wave. Establishing communication through online tools to ensure that children are safe is one way. Building partnerships with educators and the school system is another.

“Educators are key, as they are having that contact with children, especially with younger children who aren’t necessarily able to have access to the same technology as youth,” says MacDougall.

Reflecting and learning from the first wave of the pandemic is important to provide the necessary support to women during the second wave.

“For every woman killed, there are more living in fear,” says MacDougall. “We need to create communities of care to tackle this.”