“We call on all employers to integrate this issue into the issues of professional equality”

HASn August 10, sixty-nine feminicides were recorded in France, according to the Féminicides collective by companions or ex. If the taboo of domestic violence has long persisted, collective indifference has finally given way to the determination, taken to the highest level, to put an end to this scourge.

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Since the Grenelle of domestic violence, in 2019, nearly fifty measures have emerged to improve the listening and immediate protection of victims, emergency sheltering, access to care to rebuild… Nevertheless, the fight to eradicate violence against women remains long; it must be able to rely on our vigilance, our intransigence and our collective involvement.

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The fight against domestic violence is our responsibility, a social issue. The subject must therefore not stop at the door of companies and deserves a proactive posture, a strong commitment from employers.

According to a study published in 2019 by the Foundation to act against exclusion, 62% of female victims are employees, and one in ten employees knows a colleague who has suffered domestic violence. And if the company became a relevant player in the detection and prevention of this violence? The workplace is often seen as a place ” sure “ by the victims of conjugal violence, a place which takes them out of the private sphere, which removes them from their aggressor.

Social responsibility

Let’s make this space of refuge a potential space of resources and protection where victims can free their words, find listening and answers and feel concretely supported. This supposes, in the first place, raising awareness and empowering managers on the subject, but also training them to identify weak signals, to listen actively, benevolently and reassuringly, to better detect situations of domestic violence.

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The company must then be responsive in alerting and directing victims to specialized and competent people to break the isolation. Finally, support for the employees concerned requires the implementation of prevention and assistance actions, which can be part of a “protective network” with the entire ecosystem specialized in the fight against domestic violence.

On a day-to-day basis, the company can protect one of its employees from harassment by changing her e-mail address or by filtering her incoming calls through the switchboard, allowing her to initiate procedures on her working time, facilitating her geographical mobility or her access to new accommodation…

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