Women Worldwide Remain Victims of Domestic Violence

March 5, 2008—Violence against women, especially domestic violence—violence, physical and sexual, committed by the male partner—is still pervasive around the world.

At least one in three women is beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused by an intimate partner in the course of her lifetime, according to the UN (read the fact sheet PDF).

Gender violence often serves to enforce gender discrimination: Men often use violence to punish perceived transgressions of gender roles, to show authority, and to save honor. Violence against women is often considered normal and justified by the broader society rather than a criminal act.

Violence against women is often tolerated by laws, institutions, and community norms that discriminate against women and girls.

Landmark Study Documents Victims—In Cities and Villages

The World Health Organization recently interviewed 24,000 women in cities and villages in 10 countries (developed and developing) around the world: Bangladesh, Brazil, Ethiopia, Japan, Namibia, Peru, Samoa, Serbia, Thailand, and Tanzania.

This landmark study, Multi-country Study on Women's Health and Domestic Violence Against Women, found that between 15% and 71% of women in long-term relationships have experienced physical and/or sexual violence by an intimate partner at some point.

Women in Japan were the least likely to have ever experienced such violence—15%. But even that number is high. Rural women in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Peru, and Tanzania experienced most violence.

When asked whether they experience partner violence in the past year, the figures ranged from 4% in Japan and Serbia to 54% in Ethiopia.

Few Women Seek Help

Abuse often remains hidden. Very few women reported seeking help from formal services like health and police, or from individuals in positions of authority despite the health consequences. Instead they reach out to friends, neighbors, and family members.

At least 20% of women reporting physical violence in the study had never told anyone about their experiences before being interviewed, the report found.

This poses a problem for policy makers—how to deal with preventing domestic abuse if they don't even know how pervasive it is.

All of Society Pays a Price

Family bonds as well as economic and emotional dependence make prevention and protection difficult, according to a World Bank report on preventing and responding to gender-based violence in middle- and low-income countries.

Violence against women costs society as a whole. Gender-based violence poses significant costs for the economies of developing countries, including lower worker productivity and incomes, lower rates of accumulation of human and social capital, and the generation of other forms of violence both now and in the future.

Domestic violence also affects children of abused mothers. For example, researchers in Nicaragua found that children of women who were physically and sexually abused by their partners were six times more likely than other children to die before the age of 5, with one third of all child deaths in this setting being attributed to partner violence.

Law Enforcement

In many developing countries, law codes don't criminalize physical or sexual violence against women. Or make it difficult to enforce and convict the perpetrators.

Over the last 30 years, many governments have revised penal and civil legislation, making it easier to prosecute offenders. For example, they have criminalized domestic violence and marital rape, and have eliminated provisions that allowed perpetrators of rape to escape criminal sanctions by agreeing to marry the victims.

But changing the laws is just one step in changing behavior and enforcing justice. Often these law enforcement institutions are under-funded, inaccessible, incompetent, or even corrupt. All of this makes it impossible for them to enforce criminal law more generally.

Health Sector

Health care organizations around the world have tried to improve the care they provide to survivors of gender-based violence. In addition, public health programs, which have a long history of working to change sexual attitudes, practices, and behaviors, have begun applying those strategies to gender-based violence.

However, health professionals often aren't taught to recognize the health consequences of domestic violence, rape, or sexual abuse, nor do they know how to respond to to girls and women who disclose that they have experienced violence. Also, they often view violence against women as a social issue rather than a health problem.

Education

Better education can reduce women's vulnerability to violence. Schools could play a proactive role in preventing violence against women on by promoting greater respect for women's human rights. But this isn't the case yet.  Sexual harassment by educators and students appears to be widespread in many parts of the world.

Schools and universities can't be positive agents for change as long as the school environment tolerates or condones discrimination and violence against girls.

Moreover, the lack of school safety appears to reduce girl enrolment in some areas. For example, parents' fears for their daughters' physical and sexual safety appears to be a major reason for withholding girls from school in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.

However, evidence of sexual harassment in schools and the spread of the HIV/AIDS have compelled many governments, schools and universities to start addressing gender-based violence through policies, awareness campaigns and curriculum changes.

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