Dear Readers:

Violence against women is widely recognized as a global health problem that occurs across all countries and sectors of society. Beyond the physical damages, lost wages, injuries and deaths, the psychological effects of violence are more enduring and carry across generations. In the United States, it is estimated that between one in six to one in three women will be raped in her lifetime. [cdc website] Other types of abuse are even more prevalent.

Women are more vulnerable in Ciudad Juarez, with the high level of migration and the concomitant social challenges. While certain types of violence, such as homicide, are more prevalent among men than women in Juarez, women still suffer high rates of all types of violence. The incidence of such crimes is alarming by any standard.

Dr. Kathleen Staudt, a professor of Political Science at UTEP, undertook an 18-month research study on this very topic, the results of which were recently released in the community.

The broad goals of Dr. Staudt’s study include:

• Identifying risk factors associated with violence, and the incidence of violence, among a random sample of women aged 15-39;
• Comparing treatment and control groups with intervention in the treatment group on the topics of risk avoidance and self-defense;
• Developing a model of cross-border collaboration that will spur expanded research and outreach all along the U.S.-Mexico Border, drawing on networks in the Transborder Consortium on Gender and Health at the U.S.-Mexico Border; and
• Translating the scientific research into policy recommendations and actions with government agencies, Non-Government Organizations (NGOs), and employers.

Through my past work with the FEMAP Foundation, I was involved in the organization of some of the workshops on the Juarez side, and had the opportunity to see the research process firsthand. About a year ago, I spent a morning in a chilly elementary school classroom in a Juarez neighborhood, where about thirty women had gathered to participate in one of these workshops. The teacher divided us into groups and gradually drew out the experiences.

The groups came back the following week with posters they had drawn. Some were idealized versions of their hometowns that were bucolic and agricultural, in contrast with a grimy and isolating city they had come to for work. Some of the drawings were cartoonish and childlike, but the words in the thought bubbles dealt with depression, abuse, and thoughts of suicide. A woman in her fifties began to cry, as she told her daughter that she had never spoken openly about any of this before.

The following excerpts from her summary show the magnitude of this problem:

“Seventy percent of women reported that they do NOT trust the police, and only 20 percent of physically abused women denounce the crime to authorities. Most women report some fearfulness in their neighborhoods and streets. Not only do many women express sadness, but slightly more than half report that sadness affects their daily activities; 13 percent have thought about taking their lives in the last year.”

The research found that 27 percent of women with partners reported being hit, and 12 percent had been raped.

“To the extent that this sample represents women aged 15-39 in Cd. Juárez, the number of partnered women who are physically abused would total more than 70,000… approximately 26,000 would have been raped” states the report of women who had been hit. Only about 20 percent denounce their accuser."

Staudt ends her summary with recommendations that include increased training for police officers, improving the infrastructure of shelters and others fighting this problem, and even increasing the minimum wage in Juarez. To read the summary of the study’s results, click the following link. [mini-summary report – english]

The local problems fit a global pattern. In a recent report from the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of the Armed Forces (DCAF) [link], it was found that between 1.5 and 3 million women and girls worldwide die in gender-based violence each year. The scale on which domestic violence, dowry deaths, honor killings, gender-driven female abortion and infanticide occur is the scale of the Holocaust, every two or three years. No war can be fought that will end the “gendercide” in one fell swoop – the real culprit is the silence which prevails. The balance will only be tipped through knowledge, local action, and outrage, which is too often absent.

Vanessa Johnson

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