A paper and a public event to build knowledge, foster dialogue and develop tools that can strengthen the role of businesses in tackling gender-based violence.
Gender-based violence is a structural phenomenon that cuts across society and the workplace. It is an issue that cannot be addressed only as an emergency, but must also be understood as a matter of culture, organisation and shared responsibility. This is the starting point from which we promoted, together with Fondazione Libellula and the University of Turin, a new paper on the role that businesses and organisations can play in preventing and tackling gender-based violence.
The paper was presented in Turin on Thursday 5 March, on the occasion of International Women’s Day, during an event promoted by Amapola, together with several partners, and hosted by CSI Next. At the heart of the morning were data, tools, concrete cases and a question that feels increasingly urgent to us: how can organisations become places that are able not only to respond to violence, but to truly prevent it?
The scale of the issue
The figures help us understand the scale of the problem. In Italy, 6.4 million women have experienced physical or sexual violence at some point in their lives (around 3%). In Europe, the overall cost of gender-based violence is estimated at €366 billion a year. And the workplace too, which should be a space of autonomy and recognition, continues to be a context in which harassment, sexist language, stereotypes and power imbalances remain widespread and are often underestimated.
This is precisely why we wanted to develop a document that would go beyond describing the phenomenon and instead bring together practices, approaches and levers for change that can already be activated. The paper combines Italian, European and global data and examines the tools that businesses and organisations can adopt both inside and outside the workplace: training, work on language and bias, structured policies, listening and reporting channels, support measures for people experiencing violence, local networks and collaboration with anti-violence centres. In total, the document includes 23 case studies.
“Businesses and organisations affect the lives of a great many people: they can drive real change,” explained Micol Burighel, Amapola’s Head of Communication and Gender Equality. It is a belief we feel very strongly about: sustainability cannot exist without equity, listening and the protection of people. This is also why we continue to work on these issues not only through the projects we support, but also through public moments of dialogue and cultural production.
Key takeaways from the discussion
During the event, Monica Cerutti, Secretary General of UN Women Italy, offered a powerful interpretative lens: when we talk about gender-based violence, we are not speaking only about individual behaviour, but about a true architecture of power. A social and economic structure that can — and must — be rethought. The discussion also highlighted, thanks to the participation of the association Il Cerchio degli Uomini, the need to involve men without oversimplifying the issue, by working on cultural models, shared responsibility, and overcoming the logic of control and domination.
The morning alternated between the presentation of the paper, speeches by the sponsoring institutions, a roundtable with companies and associations (CSI Piemonte, Edison, Me.dea anti-violence centre, Roquette Italia) and a participatory workshop with the audience. This was an important step, because for us dialogue is not an accessory: it is part of the method. It is precisely through listening to different skills, experiences and points of view that more effective tools can emerge to address a complex and systemic issue such as this.
The discussion that emerged from the working groups will be gathered into a new version of the paper, which will soon be available on the page dedicated to the event.
Project partners
Event hosted by CSI Piemonte at CSI Next. Initiative promoted by Amapola Società Benefit and carried out as part of Measure 6.1 of the Agenda for the Sustainable Development of the Metropolitan City of Turin and its territory.
Sponsors: Metropolitan City of Turin, Torino Social Impact, Unione Industriali Torino, Turin Chamber of Commerce, Committee for Women’s Entrepreneurship Turin.
Scientific partners: Fondazione Libellula, University of Turin, UniToGO, CIRSDe.
Project supporters: CSI Piemonte, Edison, Lidl Italia, Roquette Italia.
Technical partner: Dotwords.
