There is power in a definition. A definition is a shared understanding among people, a social knowledge. Yet in April of last year, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office on Violence Against Women quietly changed their definitions of domestic violence and sexual assault.
This change comes ahead of a discussion this June where the International Labour Organization (ILO) will decide on a convention on gender-based violence. Currently, there is no international standard for the definition of violence and harassment in the world of work.
