Violence Against South Asian Women: Understanding Cultural "Competency" of Structures that Heal

Speaker:

Shamita Das Dasgupta, Ph.D.

Co-founder of Manavi

Violence against women is a worldwide problem. According to the World Health Organization, about 1 in 3 women around the globe have experienced physical and/or sexual violence by intimate and non-intimate partners. In this presentation, Dr. Shamita Das Dasgupta, a professor, author and one of the co-founders of Manavi, the first organization in the U.S. formed to address the unmet needs of South Asian women victims of violence, will discuss violence against South Asian women in the U.S. She will review the nature of violence against women and the goals of advocates seeking to end it. She will discuss language access issues and the role of culture in explaining behavior, intimate violence, and health outcomes among South Asian women. She will then examine the concept of structural bias and some of the structural factors that practitioners often overlook in health care delivery. Dr. Das Dasgupta will also guide participants through two case studies and one self-reflection exercise. She will end the presentation with steps that practitioners can take to move toward structural competence in responding to violence against South Asian and other women.