Overview

There is a common understanding that power is not distributed equally and in general men have much more power than women in the world. Therefore, in order to create a just and progressive world, we need to encourage and support gender equality. The Council of Europe defines 'gender equality' an equal visibility, empowerment and participation of both sexes in all spheres of public and private life; gender equality means accepting and valuing equally the differences between women and men and the diverse roles they play in society. From a gender equality perspective, Violence against Women (VAW) or Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) is a result and an expression of prevailing imbalances of power relations between the sexes. The objective of this research project was to find workable solutions to the relationship between gender equality and violence against women. Violence against women is a public health problem worldwide; even where gender equality index is high. Current data indicate that despite the high rate of gender equality in the Nordic countries - like Sweden, the rate of violence against women and girls remain high. Experts refer to this perceived anomaly as the 'Nordic Paradox'. This study covers five EU28 countries: Sweden, Spain, Malta, Bulgaria and Poland; and is based on an understanding that the relationship between gender equality and violence against women is very complicated. It is an attempt to gain a better and more nuanced understanding of relationships between gender equality and violence against women. In fact, if we were able to find a reasonable explanation for this Nordic Paradox, we would be able to find an appropriate formula for defining gender equality and the relationships between gender equality and violence against women. In order to reach such a goal, we intend to do the followings: (1) Examine the relationships between gender equality rights and the prevalence of violence against women within our select five countries - with regards to the aforementioned inconsistency between gender equality scores and the prevalence of IPV; (2) Clarify the power imbalances between men and women; and through review of related literature; analyse local social and cultural norms and beliefs on expected male and female roles, including the overall status of women; (3) Recognize the impact of other possible contributory factors including: childhood sexual victimization, exposure during childhood to violence between parents, violent video games played during childhood and adolescence and the correlation to the prevalence of VAW in adulthood; (4) Acknowledge the intersectionality of violence against women with regards to the structural inequalities of race, age, class, culture, and income which may present multiple oppressions; and (5) finally to reveal the ideological disparities of gender roles that may still exist in countries high on the Gender Equality Index. The conclusions reached by the study suggest that the high rate of Intimate Partner Violence in Sweden should not be considered a paradox but rather as an 'unintended consequences' of the growing gender equality and the persistent power of the patriarchal past.

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