On Friday, 9 January 2026, the first focus group session took place in Italy, made possible through the fruitful collaboration between EnEA and INAIL.
Eleven representatives from national and local political and healthcare institutions, alongside healthcare professionals and experts in the fields of healthcare, violence, and gender, brought their extensive experience and expertise to a constructive and stimulating dialogue.
This exchange shed light on a wide range of crucial issues. Participants emphasised that gender-based violence within social and healthcare contexts is deeply intertwined with numerous other phenomena. These include gender inequality, power dynamics, misrecognition of roles and professional skills, limited awareness of what constitutes violence and harassment, and the lack of a shared language, imagery, and definition of it.
The time allocated for the session was barely sufficient to address the many reflections and topics raised by participants, underscoring not only the complexity of the phenomenon but also the urgent need for deeper exploration, precisely what the BRAVE WOW project aims to achieve, including through the Gender Based Violence at Work Questionnaire (GBVW_Q).
Indeed, the insights gathered from this initial focus group, together with those from similar sessions held in Portugal, Spain, and Slovenia, will inform the development of this innovative tool, which represents one of the key outcomes of this international collaboration and will contribute to a better mapping and comprehension of violence and harassment in the healthcare sector in its plural expressions.