“Security” has long been defined narrowly: borders, armaments and military balances. But the real security of a society is measured by how people live. For a woman, security is not only protection from external threats, but also the ability to live a safe and secure life without being subjected to violence in her daily life.
Today's security approach pushes this fundamental reality to the background. Increasing military expenditures and policies shaped accordingly lead to a shrinking of public services and a weakening of social support. The result is more precarity and uncertainty for large segments of society.
For women, this picture is even more severe. Working women, whether with or without children, married or single, are caught between low wages, precarious working conditions and rising living costs. The inadequacy of public services not only increases the burden of care, but also makes life more fragile for women living alone or trying to build a life independent of their families.
This vulnerability is not only economic. Women are not even secure in their most basic right to life. Whether on the street, at work or at home, every day brings news of a new femicide. As violence is dealt with as individual incidents, the social dimension of this problem is rendered invisible. Yet this picture is the result of a system that devalues women's lives and leaves them unprotected.
Policies that grow under the name of security do not change this reality and often cover it up. While resources are allocated to different areas, protective mechanisms, social services and preventive policies that are directly related to women's lives are not sufficiently strengthened. This perpetuates a life in which violence and precarity are intertwined.
Today, working women live under a twofold pressure. Economic insecurity on the one hand and violence that threatens the right to life on the other. These two areas are not independent of each other; on the contrary, they are different consequences of the same order. In an environment where women become economically dependent and public support is weak, it becomes difficult to protect them from violence.
It is therefore necessary to rethink the concept of security. Real security is possible in an order in which people can survive, their rights are protected and their lives are valued. The most tangible expression of security is a life in which a woman can earn a living and not be afraid to walk down the street.
Today, we are faced with the opposite picture. While the labor of working women is devalued, their lives are not adequately protected. This situation is not accidental; it is a direct result of the policies that have been favored.
The question to be asked is clear: If women in a country are precarious while working and insecure while living, what security can we talk about there?
Real security can only be established in an order in which the lives of all laborers can be protected, their labor is compensated and they are provided with decent living conditions. Any other definition is doomed to remain incomplete and inadequate.