Q: The GSS shows that women are as violent as men, so why do we always hear about violence against women?
A: FIRST of all, the GSS does not accurately reflect the prevalence of violence against women. If we are to look at other surveys, also conducted by Statistics Canada, then we would have a more accurate picture. For instance, did you know that the 1993 GSS measured just about half the rate of violence actually experienced by women as compared to the 1993 Violence Against Women Survey? The GSS clearly does not capture the full extent of violence against women.
SECOND, the GSS did not include women who are most victimized by violence. It excluded women who are in transition, women in shelters, women who are on the run because of the violence they have experienced, women who are homeless and poor, women who do not have a telephone in their households, women who are hearing or speech impaired, and women who do not speak English or French. That's a sizeable group of Canadian women whose experiences were not included in the GSS. Other surveys have shown that these women experience multiple forms of violence.
THIRD, the GSS only measures spousal violence within a 5-year and 12-month period prior to the survey interview. So a woman who had experienced child sexual or physical abuse would not be counted. Nor would a woman who had experienced violence prior to the 5-year period demarcated by the survey have her experience included.
FOURTH, the GSS specifically focuses on spousal violence. This means that it does not take into consideration all the other forms of violence in intimate relationships that women experience, e.g., dating violence, child abuse, violence from pimps, johns, traffickers, or sexual harassment in the workplace, stranger/date rape, or violence experienced in everyday life.
FIFTH, even in the context of spousal violence, the GSS does not add up the figures for emotional abuse in its final figures for spousal violence. This means that the two kinds of abuse are treated separately when in reality they are intertwined, one often exacerbating and leading to the other.
Q: If the GSS shows that equal levels of violence are experienced by both genders, then why should the government allocate funding to violence prevention and intervention programs for women?
A: Violence against women is a global reality. Around the world, women and girls are victimized by male violence. Violence against women is primarily perpetrated by males. In 1993, Canada was a signatory to the UN Declaration on Violence Against Women aimed at eliminating gender-based violence. In 1995 at the 4th World Conference on Women, Canada was a signatory to the United Nations Platform for Action on Women's Equality where it agreed to "take integrated measures to prevent and eliminate violence against women" and to study the causes and consequences of violence against women. More recently at the Iqaluit Declaration in 1998, various levels of government again affirmed their commitment to end violence against women.
Male violence against women is a reality that the GSS cannot minimize. Previous statistics provide an extensive portrait of the violence that women in Canada experience. Some of these statistics are referred to below.
Q: But the GSS shows that both men and women are equally violent, so why should we fund shelters for women?
A: First of all, while the GSS total tally shows little difference in percentages between the violence experienced by men and women, it also shows that women are more severely impacted by the violence. Let's look at these results in more detail:
- More than twice as many women as men reported being beaten;
- 5 times as many women as men reported being choked;
- Almost twice as many women as men reported having a gun or knife used against them;
- More than 6 times as many women as men reported being sexually assaulted;
- 4 out of 10 women are afraid for their lives, as compared to 1 out of 10 men;
- 4 times as many women as men reported to being threatened, harmed or having someone close to them being threatened or harmed;
- More than twice as many women reported having their property damaged or their possessions destroyed as compared to men; and,
- 4 times as many women as men reported being denied access to family income.
When we look at severity, it is clear that women are not only victimized in greater numbers, but the severity of violence directed against them necessitates services for them. In fact, in comparison to the numbers of women who are impacted by violence, the existing services are not nearly enough to meet the need.
The GSS clearly reveals the greater impact of violence as is evident in the following statistics:
- 65% of the women were assaulted more than once;
- 26% of the women were assaulted more than 10 times;
- 40% of women compared to 13% of men reported being physically injured as a result of the violence in the 5-years preceding the interview;
- Women were 5 times more likely to require medical attention as a result of the violence.
Other survey results show that 85% of women living in transition houses are there because of trying to escape someone with whom they've had an intimate relationship (Trainor, 1999). And these women only constitute a small percentage (in the realm of 13% according to 1994 figures) of all women who are escaping abusive relationships. Most women end up going to friends or relatives (Rodgers, 1994). Shelters are extremely necessary as a form of crisis intervention to help women escaping from abuse.
Q: So how come the final figures tell a different story?
A: The GSS final figures add up to equalize the violence between men and women because the survey does not assign differential values to different forms of violence. So if one person reports being slapped, it is counted as being the same as another person who reports being choked. This is one of the major problems of survey research. But, the GSS does try and compensate for this by showing those who are victimized by the more severe forms of violence, and who suffers the most. And it's women who suffer the most. If we look at the most extreme form of violence - murder - that's when we see the true extent of violence against women. For every 1 husband killed, there are 3.4 wives murdered per year.
However, a major shortcoming of the GSS is that it does not take into consideration the social, economic and cultural context in which we live, or the immediate context of the violent relationship. The GSS does not look at how violence is used in a relationship - whether it is a form of self-defence or whether it is used to maintain power by an abuser. Without understanding the context, it is easy to define a slap as a form of violence and not see it as an act of retaliation against an abuser who may be raping, beating or choking a woman. Research shows that most women use violence in self-defence. Most women are also smaller in size and do not have the same strength as a man. Add to this the popular stereotypes and norms about femininity, and the weight of history in terms of depictions, expectations and rules governing the status of women.
If we look at the larger context, we can see that women are devalued in many areas of social life. They are objectified and sexualized in the media, and economically, women have not achieved wage parity, nor are they equally represented in the political or legal arena. Women have not achieved equality as yet, despite the results of the GSS which attempt to make it appear as if we have achieved parity in violence!
Violence is about power and domination. Violence is used as a tool to control and subordinate those who are powerless. Most women have neither the social, economic and/or political power, nor are they the dominant group in society. Some women possess power through social class, and others may enjoy different privileges. But within the context of society today, women as a group of individuals defined on the basis of their gender are more frequently subjected to an abuse of power. Without economic power, women cannot leave abusive relationships. Without social and cultural power, they are often blamed for the abuse and further victimized by the institutions in society. Thus, when women respond with violence, their acts of violence have a different social meaning. In fact, when women respond with violence, they are punished for transgressing social norms. When men respond with violence, they are either validated for their use of force, or mildly sanctioned. Women often respond to violence with violence because they have nowhere else to turn. Male dominated institutions in society do not assist women except when required to do so by the force of law. But even here, the law has not always worked for women. The intentions and motivations underlying violent acts have to be taken into consideration. The GSS does not do this.
Q: So are you suggesting that there are no violent women, and that only men are violent?
A: No, there are some violent women, but if we are to compare men and women which is what the GSS tries to do in terms of their experiences of violence, then we must remember that more men than women commit acts of violence, and more women then men are victimized by acts of violence. And the difference between the genders is highly significant. Let's look at some of the other statistics released by Statistics Canada over the years:
- 98% of sexual assaults and 86% of violent crimes are committed by men (Johnson, 1996);
- Women constitute 98% of spousal violence victims of sexual assault, kidnapping or hostage taking (Fitzgerald, 1999);
- 80% of victims of criminal harassment are women while 90% of the accused are men (Kong, 1996).
These statistics just point to the tip of the iceberg. They don't refer to the full spectrum of violence against women nor do they identify the specific groups of women who are more vulnerable to violence and who are victimized at a rate that is comparably higher than the national average.
Aside from this, let's look at the double standards in social
reality. When men beat up their wives, other men who know of
this sanction the behaviour. The criminal justice system also
sanctions that violence in the way it treats women victims and
the manner in which it trivializes gender-based violence. In
the movies, we see countless portrayals of women being raped,
beaten and murdered. In the news, we often see headline cases
of women and children being murdered by their spouses. If these
were men being murdered, we would hear an outcry. The same does
not hold true for women despite the decades of activism in which
women's groups have been engaged. Yet, when women murder their
abusive spouses or injure them, as in the Bobbit case, there is
a sense of moral outrage and the story is reported around the
world because the woman involved transgressed social and gendered
norms. When women engage in violence, it does not mean the same
thing nor is it treated the same way.
Q: So how do we eliminate violence against both genders?
A: Violence is entrenched in society. 'Might is right' so the adage goes, and power is about dominance. Society values power and accords it a greater recognition. Men are taught to be violent as a way of fitting into the masculine prototype. Men are socialized to be dominant. Clearly, this needs to change. But in order for it to change, we have to change social institutions, we have to value women's work and raise women's economic and social status in society. This is not going to happen overnight. The struggle has begun. Societies that have low levels of wife abuse are ones where women have power and status, and where social institutions are quick to step in and stop the violence. These societies provide support to women and impose heavy sanctions on men who commit violence.
Violence is about power and the abuse of power. More
immediately, we need to protect those who don't have social,
cultural, economic and political power - women and children. We
need to provide services for women and their children who are
fleeing violent relationships. We need to communicate the
message at all levels that violence against women will not be
accepted. The dominant institutions in society have to reflect
that same message - from the school halls, to the courts, to the
media.
Q: Where does that leave the GSS and other surveys like it?
A: Surveys are important because they provide us with a sense of how widespread a particular problem is. But survey results have to be treated cautiously particularly when they are based on exclusionary criteria. We have to scrutinize these results so that we can piece together a more complete picture. When we extract data from the GSS, we can see that it cannot erase the severity and greater impact of violence on women in relationships. But the GSS only tells part of the story. Qualitative data provide a more in-depth look at how women not only cope with violence but also survive its impact against huge odds. This kind of information gives us a better understanding of how to intervene more effectively in order to stop the escalation of violence and what women need in order to leave a violent relationship. Qualitative and quantitative (e.g., survey research) information are required for us to have a more informed understanding of violence.