Increasing Gender Violence Among Youth In Spain

In Spain,in the current year of 2017 so far 20 women have already been murdered by their partners or ex partners: in 2016,that figure was 44: in 2015,64;in 2014,44.In 2013,499 young women were mistreated by their partner;576,in 2014;637 in 20151.The numbers are increasing considerably.What is happening in Spain?Spain is a democratic country ruled by a Parliamentarian monarchy since 1975 and it is a member of the European Union since 1986.Both facts allowed Spaniards to achieve many rights denied by the Dictatorship that run the State for 36 years(1939-1975).Franco's dictatorship,through censorship and rigid norms forced its citizens to accept the regime without raising many questions;helped in a way by the Catholic Church,which also imposed severe moral norms.In this period women were forbidden being present in many areas of the society.They were denied to almost 90% of the jobs and their decisions were controlled,first by their parents,and then by their husbands.However little by little,through the years,women could start achieving to gain some rights.The dictatorship ended with the death of the general Franco and the Spanish political transition starts,which is welcome for Spanish people.Laws like the right to obtain divorce,decriminalization abortion,allow feminist groups to ask for more rights in order to get legal equality between the two genders.Being a European country and full democracy,it was believed that conquering rights was easier and the citizens tended to be more open-minded and liberal.Nevertheless,rights tend to get shrink and the new policies are becoming more conservatives in the recent years.With regard to gender inequality,women still suffer from discrimination,male chauvinism and,what is worse,from gender and domestic violence at early ages –adolescence-.The problem is complex and solving it requires research,collection of data and varied solutions such as educating the younger generation of Spaniards at school since as early ages as 7 years old.There are many reasons that can explain this kind of violence.First,History.As it was said,women lacked of presence in the Spanish society during the Francoism.Their role were to be mother and wife above all.They got not proper education and their social status were behind men's.This reality is still present nowadays because they are transmitted by generations.The Catholic Church played an important part for this behaviors judging especially women,under moral norms and influencing all the aspects in their life.The traditional sexism and male chauvinism,called “machismo” in Spain,that happened at every country around the world also make the violence more aceptable.Domestic violence has existed in Spain –and almost every country in the world-for many years but during the dictatorship was considered a family issue and nobody,outside the couple,had the right to ask about it or to get involved with it.It was not until the late 90's when,due to the government and some national organizations that started to collect data,Spanish citizens started to take conscious about gender and domestic violence happening in the country.One of the main reasons for the murders are that women are more free than ever and do not accept anymore to be under the control of their husbands or fathers-so it is a matter of men losing power and control over their female partners-very often jealousy is also involved in these heinous crimes,and,when they realize they cannot take over,they murder and,in most of the cases,commit suicide afterwards.Even though,the new forms of communication through social networks and phone text messages are giving couples new ways of controlling their partners,especially,for youngster,who,indeed,are more exposed to the new technology.It is important to point out too that gender and domestic violence happen also among immigrants in Spain and not only among Spanish couples.Indeed,this violence has grown among the immigrant communities-from South America and East Europe where male chauvinism is still predominant in their culture-more than violence among Spaniards.There are external reasons too: mass media also has an enormous influence over people's behavior,especially over young and adolescents.Tv commercials that shows men have to be stronger than women,or that men need to “bother” women in order to get their love have got into people's mind.For this reason,many women's associations have requested and achieved to forbid such kind of advertisements recently.The financial crisis that took place in 2008 and affected considerably Western Europe hit hard Spain.When it comes to gender violence,many schools lacked of resources to provide education about gender understanding,making the students ignorant about the topic.All of these motives meant a retrogression of the thoughts and are threatening women's recent conquest and their integration in the society.It is true also that many conquers have been achieved and many laws have been created in order to eliminate gender violence during the democracy(law of abortion,law of divorce,law to protect women against violence),but it is also true that many obstacles keep being dominant.This research intends to get deeper into the problems and the roots related with the persistence of this gender violence in Spain and how it is still difficult to eliminate it.