As the 16 days of activism against gender-based violence came to an end earlier this week, Sheffield University’s Women’s Officer Eloise Taylor, 19, reflects on their message. 

The UN campaign, originally created to challenge violence against women and girls, ran in Sheffield from 25 November to 10 December this year.

It began on International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, and ended on Human Rights Day.

Activities ran by the Students’ Union ranged from the annual “Reclaim the Night” march, to self defence classes and film screenings.

SU Women’s Officer Eloise Taylor helped organise the events.

She said her aim was “to spread awareness, because there’s a dark figure around the crime of gendered violence”. 

She said that the students who attended the events found them to be impactful, but that the university needs to boost its resources and information around gender-based violence, as “certain students may have a skewed perception of violence and its effects”. 

Statistics from 2023 show that partners and family members intentionally kill a woman every 10 minutes, and that globally, 70% of women in conflict, war or humanitarian crises experience gender-based violence. 

This year, national levels of gender violence has prompted the issue to be labelled a ‘national threat’, with a woman being killed by a man every three days in the UK, according to UN reports. 

The same report claims that one in every 4 women will experience domestic violence at some point within her lifetime.

Eloise explained that she wanted to reassure students that “there are still people fighting, we need to keep fighting”, and that large government bodies must be held accountable in the wake of ongoing campaigning both nationally and internationally.