About the IANSA Women’s Network

The IANSA Women’s Network supports organisations working on women and violence prevention to combat gun violence in their communities and support the global campaign to reduce the proliferation and misuse of small arms. Its aims to connect organisations, provide information and resources, raise public awareness, and build a united and dynamic movement of women resisting gun violence around the world. To date, the Women’s Network has over 250 members from every region in the world.

Why We Need a Women’s Network

Guns affect women and men differently.

The proliferation and misuse of small arms and light weapons contributes to inequality between women and men and gender-based violence in countries all over the world, whether war affected or at peace. While the vast majority of those who use and are killed or Injured by small arms and light weapons are men, women are particularly vulnerable to sexual violence at the barrel of a gun. Intimate partner violence is more likely to be lethal when a firearm is present in the home, increasing the risk of death by 12 times compared to other means of violence. For this reason, guns that are legally owned are just as dangerous to women as those that are illegally held. Guns also affect women and girls when they are not directly in the firing line. They are disproportionately affected by the damage to health, education and other social services caused by armed violence. Women often become the main breadwinners and primary carers when male relatives are killed, injured or disabled by gun violence. Displacement due to violent conflict leaves them particularly vulnerable to starvation and disease as they struggle to fend for their families.

Women have taken a leading role in gun control efforts all over the world.

Women have taken leadership roles in peacebuilding work, violence prevention and education about gun violence all over the world. Members of the IANSA Women’s Network work are actively engaged in disarmament initiatives; ending gun violence in the home; awareness-raising about the problems of small arms availability and misuse; monitoring and evaluation of weapons disposal programmes, and in formulating long-term strategies to combat this global crisis.

Women continue to be underrepresented in small arms policy and practice.

Recognition of gender considerations for the effective implementation of small arms control policy remains weak within the UN small arms process. Women continue to be misrepresented as the largest number of victims of armed violence, and their efforts to combat armed violence are often marginalised and receive little support. Women’s resources, including their understanding and analysis of the problem, conflict-resolution expertise, influence in the home, networking for peace and voting power are critical for making a long term impact on reducing gun violence. The Women’s Network seeks to ensure that 54% of the world’s population is included as a priority as well as a resource for tackling the problem in all its complexity.

Women’s Network Bulletin and Web Portal

The Women’s Network publishes a quarterly Bulletin, Women at Work: Preventing Gun Violence, in English, Spanish and French which contain profiles of a member NGOs, articles on women, gender and small arms, and a listing of news, new resources and events of interest to Network members. The Women’s Network portal, accessed via the IANSA website , is available in English , Spanish and French and contains web versions of the Network Bulletins, as well as news, campaign updates, reports, and fact sheets on women and small arms.

How to get involved

The IANSA Women’s Network is supporting and connecting organisations working on women and gun violence so that they can effectively organise locally, nationally, regionally and globally. We are seeking the involvement of all organisations working on or interested in working on the impact of gun violence on women. To join us, send us an email women@iansa.org.