( M S I 33 )
Gender Violence
A Result from Gender Roles in Social Attitudes? Emma Pereira Arias
IFMSA - Spain University of Santiago de Compostela public.relations@ifmsa-spain.org
Achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls is one of the 17 sustainable development goals adopted for the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development at the United Nations Summit on September 25, 2015. Specifically, eliminating all forms of violence against all women and girls is one of the main targets. The Ministry of Health, Social Services and Equality of Spain has released the preliminary results from the 2015 Survey on Violence against Women, including data on physical, economic, sexual and psychological violence from partners and non-partners. Of the total number of women over 16 years of age residing in Spain, 12.5% have ever suffered physical and/or sexual violence from their current or former partners. Moreover, 24.5% percent of women in Spain have suffered from controlling behavior1. From these results, it is obvious that gender violence is a big issue in Spain, and there should be political and educational measures taken to put an end to it. However, the root of the issue goes far beyond a deficient education system. The main reason for the high figures on abusive behavior against women continues to be the gender roles that are still present in Spanish society to this day. Spain has a longstanding tradition of sexist gender roles. Forty years after the end of the dictatorship of Franco, part of his legacy still hangs over Spanish society, and not only the issues of corruption and regional division. Society traits that are remains of the fascist period are still present in social attitudes. The underestimation of the role that women play in society is one of them. Female graduates face double unemployment than their male equivalent. 134 Women in the Spanish cabinet council only make up 30.8% and 34.9% in the executive office of 135 the political parties2. Speaking about the private sector, 31% of Spanish companies do not include any women in their senior executive positions, and
female CEOs are only 13.4%3. Spanish society sometimes seems to keep machismo alive and well. Machismo is defined as an attitude, quality or way of behaving that agrees with traditional ideas about men being strong and aggressive4. This definition agrees with the gender role stereotypes. In fact, when speaking about the occupational sector, men are usually assigned roles that are typically associated with these “masculine” traits, and female employees usually hold positions that are considered more “feminine”. This traditional view of what role do men and women play in society, results in the portrait that a man is supposed to be dominant and assertive, while women should be compassionate and gentle. And isn’t this how gender violence starts off? If we manage to change the way society views the role men and women ‘should’ play, wouldn’t we be able to decrease the terrifying figures on the surveys?
References: 1. Survey on Violence against Women. Government Office against Gender based Violence. Ministry of Health, Social Services and Equality of Spain. Publications Center. Preliminary results, 2015. 2. Participación política, mujeres en cargos ejecutivos y en el Gobierno. Instituto Nacional de Estadística. 3 December 2015 3. “Las mujeres apenas ocupan el 13% de altos cargos en España” El Economista 22 January 2015. Web 4. Merriam-Webster Dictionary www.merriam -webster.com
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