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Important notice: The content of this article contains sensitive information regarding sexual violence. If you or someone you know needs support for such a situation, write to escuchandote@tec.mx or escuchandote@tecmilenio.mx
It’s very likely that if you ask a woman in your life, she’ll tell you she prefers not to walk alone at night. There are even practices that women carry out to feel safer in public spaces: sharing their location, registering taxi driver data by app, traveling accompanied, not using public transport, avoiding wearing certain clothes, or even considering wearing comfortable shoes if a situation arises. There is a reason for this: the cases of sexual violence that women experience daily. Historically, there has been a divide between private and public spaces, and it was believed that women did not belong in the latter category. Hence, in the 1970s, movements such as #TakeBackTheNight emerged, whose objective was to name the different manifestations of sexual violence experienced by women and to vindicate their right to inhabit public spaces feeling free and safe. Today, it continues to generate awareness that these spaces are not made for women; they were undoubtedly conceived and built by men, so this movement also invites us to rethink urbanism from another perspective.
According to the latest edition of the National Survey on the Dynamics of Household Relationships (ENDIREH, 2021), five of every ten women over the age of 15 have experienced sexual violence in their lifetime. This figure increased significantly between the 2016 and 2021 surveys. In the school environment, sexual violence is also a reality: 17.9% of women over 15 have experienced sexual violence throughout their student lives. This figure also increased between the last two editions of the survey. Still, more chillingly, in the face of these figures, there is also a hidden reality: in 2021, México Evalua reported that the “black figure” (unreported cases) of sexual violence reached 99.7%.
Moreover, it is essential to define sexual violence. Many times, we associate this concept with very explicit expressions of violence, such as force, coercion, and other drastic examples. However, sexual violence is “any act or conduct that degrades or harms the body and/or sexuality of the aggrieved person or victim and that, therefore, violates their freedom, dignity, and physical integrity.” This definition allows us to understand a broader repertoire of behaviors that fall into this category.
Over the years, we have seen how violence has become nuanced in many ways; that is, although there is explicit violence, we also hear more often phrases such as “Now everything is violence,” “No one can say anything anymore,” and the worst for women: “These generations can no longer stand anything.” They play down certain forms of violence such as “compliments,” lewd looks, intimidation, and unsolicited “compliments” about a person’s body or appearance, among others, rendering invisible the negative consequences that these behaviors have on people, especially women. Hence, movements like #TakeBackTheNight proclaim the relevance of naming and pointing out this violence so that it stops going unnoticed and being normalized.
Higher education institutions are not exempt from this behavior occurring within their facilities. The behavior violates the safety of students, producing responses of silence and fear. This is why, as an institution, we have a responsibility to name and recognize sexual violence, whether outside or inside the facility, and to take concrete actions to prevent and address it.
Currently, with the Protocol of Action for the Prevention and Attention to Gender-Based Violence, Tecnologico de Monterrey and Tecmilenio seek to address cases of sexual violence that occur within the university community. We also carry out prevention and awareness-raising actions among the populations to prevent and eradicate these behaviors at their root. The open-access Reports of Transparency available for consultation are published annually by the Center for the Recognition of Human Dignity. Finally, we have contact channels through which people can be heard and guided if they are experiencing a situation of sexual violence: escuchandote@tec.mx or escuchandote@tecmilenio.mx.
There is still much work to be done, but without a doubt, universities are principal spaces for societal transformation, changing narratives, and building safe spaces free of violence. We can all join this cause since gender-based violence affects us individually and collectively, disrupting interpersonal dynamics and damaging the social fabric. Join this movement! Break the silence!
Authorship
Tecmilenio Office of Inclusion and Safe Community
Office of Gender and Safe Community, Tecnologico de Monterrey
References
https://www.inegi.org.mx/contenidos/programas/endireh/2021/doc/endireh2021_presentacion_ejecutiva.pdf https://tec.mx/sites/default/files/dignidad-humana/diseno2022/protocolo/Protocolo-Violencia-Genero-Tec-14022023.pdf
Translation by Daniel Wetta
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This article from Observatory of the Institute for the Future of Education may be shared under the terms of the license CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 
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