Gender-based violence through the lens of GIS

13/04/2021

According to David Wood, ”geography concerns itself with the Earth’s atmosphere and physical surface, including how humans affect those things and, in turn, are affected by them. So, humans are right there in the definition, being part of the landscape. In modern times, humans impact the landscape more than any other force on earth. Therefore, understanding how and why humans affect this, as well as the way the landscape affects our lives, is valuable and important.”

Geographic Information System (GIS) is a system in which spatial information may be stored, visualised, and analysed. As such, GIS used in Social Sciences is a valuable tool able to promote humans’ ability to comprehend and conceptualise relevant information.

More particulalry, in the case of gender-based violence either offline or online/in the digital environments, GIS science can contribute to ,first of all, the mapping of the problem by visualising the relevant data, while giving place and voice to the female part of data science.

According to Women in Stem, ”the gender disparity in STEM fields has been widely recognised, but few initiatives have been established at a younger age when girls decide what they want to pursue”. As, DATAWO we aim to empower and inspire girls and women to develop their digital skills, while we support such efforts, like the one presented in this post, made by Domna Kanari*.

@Domna Kanari

Domna Kanari’s project on violence against women and girls, concern the mapping of the public Counseling Centers for Violence against Women and Girls in Greece.

Few words about the project by Domna Kanari…

”The lack of open data, and especially data embedded with geographic information is a major problem in Greece and unfortunately, there are not open data concerning the available Counseling Centers for Violence against Women in Greece. The data presented in the map were created manually, using the information provided in the official site of the General Secretariat for Demography and Family Policy and Gender Equality.

This map shows the existing public Counseling Centers for Violence against Women and Girls in Greece at a national and municipal level and is an effort to raise public awareness regarding the major issue of violence against women”.

*Domna Kanari, Spatial Engineer, MSc in Geographic Information Systems (GIS), Department of Physical Geography & Ecosystem Science, Lund University

**Thank you very much Domna Kanari for letting us republish your work!