Sheryl Sandberg speaks about the importance of supporting victims of gender-based violence at COVID-19.

Today, Sheryl Sandberg announced that she is one of many women in solidarity with Together For Her, an effort to provide funding, resources, and awareness to victims of gender-based violence worldwide during the coronavirus pandemic. The Sheryl Sandberg & Dave Goldberg Family Foundation has pledged $1.5 million to the YWCA, one-third of which will go specifically to the Silicon Valley chapter.

Sandberg joins 54 leaders from the entertainment, business, and fashion worlds, including Reese Witherspoon, Octavia Spencer, Diane von Furstenberg, Kathleen Kennedy, Charlize Theron's Africa Outreach Project, CARE, and the Entertainment Industry Foundation to support this initiative launched by the Entertainment Industry Foundation.

"When emergencies happen, vulnerable communities are hit the hardest, and that means women and girls," Sandberg tells Marie Claire.

"In this country, women are the most vulnerable economically, and they are also by far the most vulnerable when it comes to violence. This is because gender-based violence and domestic violence spike at moments of economic crisis. That's why I'm focusing on this issue. And I think it's great that [Charlize] is helping more women to focus on this."

Facebook's COO's announcement came amid alarming statistics on the rise in domestic violence incidents due to COVID-19-related stressors, namely shelter-in-place orders that force victims to remain indoors with their abusers during periods of heightened tension The study was conducted by the YWCA. Sandberg explained that at the YWCA, "requests for help [to shelters] during a coronavirus outbreak are five times higher than during normal times of the year. [And it is not just the Northern California area that is witnessing a staggering increase. According to The Economist (opens in new tab), reports of domestic violence increased by 5% in the five major cities that were sealed off in late March (while overall crime fell by about 25% in the same areas). Gov. Andrew Cuomo recently announced (open in new tab) that reports of domestic violence increased in New York City in March and April. Also, according to the Marshall Report (opens in new tab), Chicago has seen a 13% increase in domestic violence reports (from friends and neighbors, not the victims themselves) since last year.

It is a problem that will continue to grow. According to the United Nations Population Fund, the six-month closure of COVID-19 could result in an additional 31 million cases of gender-based violence worldwide. While there are a myriad of factors contributing to this figure, the inability of victims to seek help, the increase in firearms in the home (opens in new tab), and especially unemployment, are adding to the trend.FiveThirtyEight found that a 50% increase in unemployment over a 12-month period would lead to "an increase in the number of intimate relationships in which prevalence of physical violence and controlling behavior rises by 10-12%," citing a 2016 study that found that "the prevalence of physical violence and controlling behavior in intimate relationships rises by 10-12%.

This makes the need for awareness and resources more urgent, Sandberg explains.

"I think when this crisis first happened, people were thinking only through the lens of health and wellness," Sandberg says. 'Because this crisis was not just a health crisis, it was a basic needs crisis. Then data began to come in on vulnerable communities and the rise in gender-based violence. Think about shelters. Shelters cannot house people at the same density. This means that while needs are increasing, the supply of available resources is decreasing. Many of those who regularly donate to such organizations experience economic hardship, and economic hardship means that such needs really, really increase. Economic hardship makes these needs really, really increase. And I think it's taking time for people to realize that. That's what we're trying to solve."

While Sandberg's attention is focused on domestic violence, she recognizes that there are several other issues where the pandemic is "bubbling" to the surface. One she feels particularly passionate about is expanding the division of labor within families.

"Women who work full time, even those who earn more than their husbands, do more child care and housework than their husbands. And that was before (the shelter-in-place order). Now, with children at home, parents at home, and people needing more help, these inequalities are getting worse"

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It is also affecting women's well-being. According to Sandberg, data collected by her foundation shows that women who have become more anxious are in turn struggling to get enough sleep.

"I think sleep is something we as adults tend to overlook," Sandberg says, praising Arianna Huffington for bringing attention to the benefits of rest. Like little kids, when they get enough sleep, they can usually cope with most things better than when they don't."

Sandberg says that besides regularly preaching the benefits of sleep to employees, she and other Facebook leaders have taken more steps to provide a financial and emotional safety net both internally and externally In early April, Facebook (open in new tab) announced that it would provide $100 million in small business grants. The company's COO confirmed that Facebook will be "one of the last companies" to reopen its offices, and that the company will continue to pay all employees and contractors "whether they are able to work, healthy, sick, caring for a family member, or able to do the same in the workplace" The company has made it clear that it will do so. Facebook also recently announced that it would discontinue its annual performance cycle.

"We wanted to avoid being told on the one hand, 'We want you to take care of yourself,' and on the other hand, 'We feel the same pressure every day,'" Sandberg explained.

"We told everyone that we were discontinuing that cycle and that we would pay them more than their normal bonus."

The business leader is applying the lessons she learned when she unexpectedly lost her husband, Dave Goldberg, in 2015 to how she supports her employees. She revealed that she personally contacts people in her company who report having been diagnosed with COVID-19 and asks them a simple question. (Sandberg's fiancée's cousin also recently died from coronavirus-related complications (opens in new tab))

"I asked an employee who was just diagnosed today, 'Are you scared? I think these are questions people are afraid to ask. They are afraid to ask the obvious and the hard questions," Sandberg says. 'When my husband died, people really didn't mean to stop talking to me, but they did because they didn't know what to say. And a lot of times, by addressing things directly, no one forces you to talk, but they mention the elephant in the room. If I get a coronavirus: is there anything I can do? Remove the elephant from every room so that you can really help people. You can't help people with something you can't deal with," she said.

She continues: "I think we are afraid to bring it up, because after five years, when people say, I'm sorry for your loss, it's not like, oh, I forgot my husband died. I know that. If you have been infected with coronavirus, you know that very well. So I think we need to stop being afraid to talk about these things and instead be proactive about them. That is the only way that we as managers can provide the emotional support that people really need."

If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic violence, call the confidential National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 or TTY 1-800-787-3224, consult online at thehotline.org.

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