SOn paper, Iceland is the best country to live in if you are a woman. The Nordic country has been at the top of the global gender equality ranking drawn up by the World Economic Forum for 15 consecutive years. But there is another side of the coin, decidedly surprising, revealed by an important new analysis. About 40% of Icelandic women have suffered violencesexual or physical, and many are struggling with the post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Iceland of gender equality, the best country for women
As the video below, made by the BBC, shows, Iceland really does look like a paradise. For years already women and men have the same chance of leading the country, of working (with identical salaries) and to take care of the children (90% of fathers take advantage of parental leave, which is equal). Girls grow up feeling like wonder women and boys are educated in care work, so they can develop their personalities out of the common stereotypes about what is masculine and what is feminine.
The 1975 equality strike
Sociologists attribute part of the responsibility for Iceland’s advances in gender equality rankings to the large demonstration of October 24, 1975. That day the women stopped what they were doing and went on strike. They thus showed how important their role in society was. The children remained entrusted to their fathers, the kitchen stoves remained turned off, the supermarkets emptied, the telephone switchboards went silent. Nothing worked anymore.
President of Iceland Vigdís Finnbogadóttir
He should at least be mentioned among the main architects of the new era Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, president of the country from 1980 to 1996: thanks to her, women’s rights have obtained recognition not comparable to any other country.
1 July 1980, Vigdís Finnbogadóttir was elected with 33.6% of the votes. She is the first woman in the world elected head of a state by direct universal suffrage. During the 1980 presidential elections, the women’s movement, which grew thanks to the 1975 general strike, pushed hard for her election. (Photo by PRESSENS BILD / AFP) (Photo by -/PRESSENS BILD/AFP via Getty Images)
Record levels of violence against women in Iceland
In a country with high levels of gender equality, one would expect to find very low rates of violence against women: this is not the case. A study, published a few days ago in the journal JAMA Network Open, he tried to investigate major life stressors. It surveyed approximately 28,200 Icelandic women aged 18 to 69 in Iceland. Among the various factors, including divorces and humiliations, the most recurrent was violence.
Two out of three women said they had witnessed or been direct victims of unwanted sexual experiencesmaking them the most common stressor, followed by life-threatening illnesses or injuries (58.1%) and accidents, fires or explosions (51.1%). hundred).
Post-traumatic stress disorder: like victims of violence, only war veterans suffer from it
Researchers at the University of Iceland also assessed respondents’ PTSD symptoms and found that, overall, 15.9% of women suffered from probable post-traumatic stress disorder.
Women who had been sexually assaulted or held captive had greater chances more likely to suffer from it than those who had experienced any other stressor in their lives, including the removal of a child, a sudden violent death, or experiencing a natural disaster.
Other studies have already identified this previously sexual victims as the group that suffers most from this disorder, together with war veterans.
Domestic and very young violence: the trauma becomes chronic
The study found that sexual violence was more traumatic for women who were first assaulted when they were less than 12 years and for those who have been attacked by a partner or relativelike a parent.
“We found a substantial percentage of women who experienced post-traumatic stress disorder decades after the last attacksupporting the thesis that it is a chronic disorder», stated the authors of the study.
The Nordic paradox: the relationship between gender equality and violence against women
Many have attributed the so-called Nordic paradox toalcohol abusecommon in Nordic countries. But that’s a simplistic explanation. Nor is the thesis that the number of violence appears high because women, aware of their rights, they report more easily than elsewhere.
Two scholars, Enrique Gracia of the Spanish University of Valencia and Juan Merlo of the Swedish University of Lund have given another explanation of the Nordic Paradox. Gender equality has undermined the traditional role of males, which they therefore exercise towards women vindictive violencemore or less unconscious. In other words, the road to gender equality is full of obstacles, even when we already believe we are approaching the finish line.
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