The largest study carried out to date estimates that 27% of women have suffered an episode of physical or sexual violence throughout their lives
One in four women has suffered some type of gender-based violence from their partner. The largest study to date on this issue, and published this Thursday in the scientific journal ‘The Lancet’, calculates that the 27% of women between 15 and 49 years old have suffered some type of physical and/or sexual violence by their partner at some point in their life and 13% say they have been victim of gender-based violence in the last year. This estimate, according to the authors of this balance, only shows the ‘tip of the iceberg’ of violence against women. To these figures should also be added the impact of psychological violence and structural discrimination that, today, continue to affect women around the world.
To calculate the impact (or rather the global prevalence) of gender-based violence, an international team of experts has analyzed the data collected by the international database of the World Health Organization (WHO) for almost two decades (specifically, between 2000 and 2018). The study of this repository, which reflects data and surveys that include almost 90% of the global population, indicates that figures of gender violence have timidly decreased in the last 20 years. The previous balance, in fact, indicated that more than 30% of women had been victims of some episode of physical or sexual violence at the hands of their partners. Now, according to this study, the global figure would be 27%.
“It is true that some progress has been made in recent years, but we are still a long way from the ‘goal’ of eliminating violence against women by 2030″, argues Claudia García-Moreno, main author of this study and professional affiliated with the World Health Organization (WHO). In this line, the expert recalls that, according to the ‘2030 Agenda’ of the United Nations for Sustainable Development, one of the great objectives of humanity for this decade is to eradicate all types of violence and discrimination against women.”The figures presented in this study confirm that violence against women continues to be a global public health challenge“, comments Garcia Moreno.
Impact of gender violence
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Another of the figures that this global study puts on the table has to do with the beginnings of gender-based violence within a couple. The 24% of women between 15 and 19 years old He claims to have suffered an episode of physical or sexual abuse during his teenage relationships. “It is alarming to see the high number of young women who have been assaulted by their intimate partner at such a young age. Especially since the violence that these women experience during adolescence and early adulthood can have lasting impacts on your health and well-being“, says Lynnmarie Sardinha, another of the WHO experts who has led the research published in ‘The Lancet’.
On a global scale, as this work highlights, the regions where figures of gender violence are higher are Oceania (where 49% of women claim to have suffered some type of abuse) and the area of sub-saharan africa (where gender violence affects more than 44% of women). In general terms, this balance estimates that the countries most affected by this scourge are those of low resources. Or those where there are “more pronounced differences” between high- and low-income regions. “These figures show the importance of continuing to create tools to prevent and reduce the impact of gender-based violence around the world,” concludes the study.