O October 25th was established by the United Nations (UN) as the International day against the exploitation of women, a date dedicated to reflecting on gender inequalities and discrimination that still persist in our reality. The problems related to this fact are quite explicit and, although the situation has improved significantly in recent decades thanks to the struggle waged by groups dedicated to the fight for gender equality and against discrimination, there is still a lot of progress to be made.
Among the most serious problems, the one that draws the most attention are cases of domestic violence against women. Data released by the World Health Organization (WHO), collected in conjunction with the London School of Tropical Hygiene, reveals that approximately 35% of all murders of women in the world are committed by an intimate partner.
In Brazil, according to PNAD/IBGE data from 2009, 48% of women who are attacked report that the violence happened in their own home. Other figures released by the Avon Institute/Data popular in 2012, in a work entitled “Men’s perceptions of domestic violence against women”, demonstrate that, within the universe of the sample collected from 1500 people, 56% of men admit to having already committed some form of aggression including swearing, pushing, attacking with words, slapping, punching, preventing people from leaving the house or forcing them to have sex.
The actions taken to solve these problems are still recent, but they are already showing results. The Maria da Penha Law, created in 2006, is one of the steps taken towards the elimination of domestic gender-based violence. The study “Evaluating the Effectiveness of the Maria da Penha Law”, carried out by the Institute of Applied Economic Research (Ipea) and released in 2015, shows that, since 2006, the law has reduced previous projections of the domestic homicide rate by 10%.
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However, there are certain problems that have deep roots. Gender inequality is not just related to violence against women. The parliament of a democratic country, such as Brazil, is iconic, or at least it should be, within its representative role. However, among the 513 seats in our chamber of deputies, only 51 of them (9.9%) were occupied by women in the 2014 elections. The world scenario is no different, as, among all the nations in the world, only 19 of them They are governed by women, as is the case of President Dilma Rousseff, re-elected in 2014.
The serious problems related to gender inequality show the real dimension of the need to increasingly seek actions that elevate us to the status of equals in our human relationships. The international day against the exploitation of women represents a day of struggle against the abuse suffered by women around the world and against inequalities in opportunities and treatment. However, it represents even more the fight for a more inclusive and less violent humanity.
By Lucas Oliveira
Graduated in Sociology