Editorial- Psychology: Violence against women II
What measures and strategies do psychologists suggest to break the stranglehold of violence against women?
Domestic violence, in its physical forms, may be mild, like pushing or slapping, or more severe, like physical assault, beating and even rape. It may take the form of “couple violence” (the husband perpetrating violence against the wife) or “patriarchal terrorism”, when the father, husband, brother, son or other family males unleash physical violence on a woman. Domestic violence may also be of a psychological nature, for instance, when a woman is mistreated, dehumanised, intimidated, threatened or kept under constant pressure of one type or another.
As a result of more women leaving their homes and entering the world outside, violence at the workplace has become quite common. Sexual harassment may take the shape of insinuations of a sexual nature, inappropriate comments, undesired physical contact, compromising invitations and/or blatant requests for sexual favours. All of these manifestations at the workplace are quite frequent.
Research shows that female workers are paid about 30% less than their male counterparts, even when their qualifications and job-related experience are equal. This is a kind of violence that is subtle but hurts nevertheless.
Then again, female workers, particularly in the corporate sector, experience what is described as the glass ceiling effect, when they cannot rise to certain positions in the corporate ladder in spite of having the required qualifications and experience.
In addition to pay and promotion discrimination, the violation of female employee privacy is another, predominantly ethical, level on which workplace violence operates. When employees offer their services to a firm, they are required to provide different kinds of information about themselves, including information relating to their medical history and social lifestyles. Once this information becomes part of the record of a firm, all or some of it may be used to the detriment of employees, including female employees.
In some less developed countries, where civil society groups and socially conscious proactive individuals are dormant, violence against defenceless sections, particularly females, is a norm. This is because no redressal mechanisms and hardly any relevant laws exist in the statutory books to prevent or punish such acts of violence against the powerless, particularly women.
In the last few years social-psychological research has been able to draw more or less clear profiles of the violated and the violators. Different studies show the violated as more frequently belong to a lower socio-economic group. She is observed to be relatively less educated, to be someone who is financially dependent and relatively young in age. She appears to have a relatively low IQ and to have been brought up in a cloistered, protected familial environment. Such a female, research shows, is more exposed to violence than others.
The demographics of the violators indicate that they are less educated individuals, who belong to a lower socio-economic group, are usually unemployed and have no source of income. They are observed to be under pressure from their families, peer-groups or social circles.
Such violent men may have one or more complications in their personalities, such as an antisocial personality disorder, or a paranoid personality disorder. The former pattern is marked by a disregard for the violation of others’ rights, and the latter by a suspiciousness of others’ motives.
In view of all this, what measures and strategies do psychologists suggest to break the stranglehold of violence against women?
The first and foremost requirement in this regard is to identify and then quantify the nature and extent of violence against women in a given society or some sections of it. This is the work and responsibility of the enlightened and those who have the expertise for the task.
After having gathered this baseline data, creating awareness regarding the existence and magnitude of the problem is the next step. It may involve a multifaceted strategy. At one level it may involve sensitising the naïve, and at another, helping to win over adherents who will join hands to redress the situation. This is where media, particularly radio and television, have a critical role to play.
That is not say, however, that the print media play only a marginal role in this regard. The print media, because of low literacy rates in the country and a host of other factors, may have a more limited role. And because of recent advancements, the electronic media has come to have a far greater reach than the print media. In sensitising people about the evil of VAW, an image is worth a thousand words. Thus the picture of a battered wife or the image of an assaulted girl-child may prove to be a far more effective message than a well researched article.
Educating women about their legal rights, and disseminating relevant information is another strategy to control VAW. So is showing women the different practical ways and means of preventing victimisation and how some of those options may be exercised. Here the NGOs, along with the media, may play a crucial role. NGOs like HRCP and others that have in the past and can in the future help victims of VAW.
Psychologists also suggest family and individual counselling and therapy, for males particularly, as an effective tool to address this problem, especially in the domestic sphere.
However, it must be emphasised that VAW cannot be isolated from the whole pattern of a society. It must be viewed as one of the manifestations of the power of certain groups/segments of society against other, defenceless segments of the same society. The rules, regulations and laws prevailing and operating in society, and their implementation, must not discriminate between the privileged, the under-privileged and the non-privileged. They must operate in a uniform manner. That should be the benchmark, the minimum ideal of a civilised society.
Source: Daily Times
Date:6/28/2007
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