SW 3703 Welcome Back

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SW 3703Welcome Back! ?

• March 26, 2008

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Session Plan

• Mid-semester feedback
• Intimate partner violence
• Video Against My Will
• Research issues

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IPV Definition

• Perpetrator
• Current spouse
• Former spouse
• Current or former boyfriend/girlfriend
• May be of the same gender
• Acts (include, but are not limited to)
• Murder
• Rape
• Sexual assault
• Robbery
• Physical assault
• Emotional abuse Insults, humiliation etc.

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Intimate Partner Violence

• Worldwide problem (10-50 of women)
• Developed as well as developing countries
• Physical, Sexual, Emotional
• Statistics about prevalence Cultural issues,
  socio-political issues

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Ecological framework for understanding IPV

• Source Population Reports/CHANGE, 1999.

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Ecological frameworkIndividual Perpetrator

• Masculinity
• Exposure to DV in childhood
• Absent or rejecting father
• Personal experiences with child abuse
  (physical/sexual/emotional)
• Alcohol use
• (Adapted from Population Reports/CHANGE, 1999)

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Ecological frameworkRelationship

• Marital/Interpersonal conflict
• Mens control of wealth/property and
  decision-making in the family
• (Source Population Reports/CHANGE, 1999)

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Ecological frameworkCommunity

• Poverty, Low SES, Unemployment.
• Associating with violent peers.
• Isolation of women and family.
• (Adapted from Population Reports/CHANGE, 1999)

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Ecological frameworkSociety

• Norms granting men control over womens behavior
• Acceptance of violence as a method of conflict
  resolution
• Notion of masculinity linked to dominance, honor
  or aggression
• Rigid gender roles
• (Adapted from Population Reports/CHANGE, 1999)

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Factors that women at risk of IPV Ecological
approach

• (Adapted from WHO multi-country study on womens
  health and domestic violence against women)

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Factors that women at risk of IPV Individual

• Womens level of education
• Financial autonomy
• Previous victimization
• Level of empowerment and social support
• History of violence in womans family
• (Source WHO multi-country study on womens
  health and domestic violence against women)

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Factors that women at risk of IPV Partner

• Male partners level of communication with the
  woman
• Use of alcohol and drugs
• Employment status
• Witnessing violence between parents as a child
• Physical aggression towards other men
• (Source WHO multi-country study on womens
  health and domestic violence against women)

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Factors that put women at risk of IPV Immediate
Social Context

• Degree of economic inequality between men and
  women
• Levels of female mobility and autonomy
• Attitudes towards gender roles and VAW
• The extent to which extended family, neighbors
  and friends intervene in DV incidents
• Levels of male-male aggression and crime
• Social capital
• (Source WHO multi-country study on womens
  health and domestic violence against women)

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"Normalization" of IPV

• If he hits you, it means he loves you
• If my husband doesnt hit me, who else will
• A man could kill his wife and incur less of a
  jail sentence than if he stole a goat
• If a man cannot rape his own wife, who else can
  he rape?
• My husband slaps me, has sex with me against my
  will and I have to conform. Before being
  interviewed I didnt really think about this. I
  thought this is only natural. This is the way a
  husband behaves.

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Justifications for IPV

• WHO Multi-country study on Womens Health and
  Domestic Violence against Women
• Widely accepted reasons
• Female infidelity
• Disobeying the husband
• Higher IPV acceptance among women who had
  experienced it than who had not.
• Can woman refuse sex to her husband?
• In the provincial areas of Bangladesh, Peru and
  Tanzania, and in Ethiopia and Samoa, between 10
  and 20 of women felt that women did not have the
  right to refuse to have sex under any
  circumstances.

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"Why does she stay?"

• Fear and threats
• No money and no place to go
• No protection
• Shame
• Religious or cultural beliefs
• Hope for change
• Guilt
• (Source Working with men on Gender, Sexuality,
  Violence Health Trainers Manual, India
  Sahyog)

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"Why does she stay?"

• "So I take a blanket and I spend the night with
  my children out in the cold because he is hitting
  me too much and I have to take the kids to stop
  him hitting them too. I would go up the mountain,
  and sleep there all night. Ive done that more
  than ten times.
• - Woman from Peru

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What do you infer from this graph about IPV
against women?(Source WHO Multi-country Study
on Women's Health and Domestic Violence against
Women)
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So, did people help?

• The WHO study reports Although many respondents
  reported having told family and friends about
  their partners violence, they were less likely
  to report that these people had tried to help. In
  fact, across all settings between 34 and 59 of
  physically abused women reported that no one had
  tried to assist them.

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Dowry

• Prevalent in South Asia nearly universal
• The movable and immovable property/wealth that
  the wife brings to the husband and his family at
  and after marriage
• Husbands right or entitlement
• Justifications Husbands SES, social pressure,
  husbands professional status
• Wife as liability
• Connections with VAW (5000 deaths/yr UNICEF)
• Social control over women
• Prohibited by law in 1961
• Womens role in perpetuating the practice

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Honor killings

• Patriarchy Women as the containers of
  reputation family reputation, in this case
• Female chastity as the familys social capital
• Reasons/justifications
• Marital infidelity
• Pre-marital sex
• Romantic association with men
• Little regret, mourning, grief
• Examples Turkey, Pakistan

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Research on VAW in international context

• Researching with women as partners
• Quantitative research
• Qualitative research
• Participatory action research
• Ethical issues
• Culture?