Masculinity and violence against women in Nicaragua. How do Nicaraguan young men masculinities influence their responses to gender based violence?

Project description

In Latin America, the patriarchal gender order in the society focuses on reinforcing and maintaining women´s disempowered and submissive status. In this setting, men are exposed to hegemonic patterns of masculinities, machismo (s), that in general promotes power gender relations based on the idea that men must be dominant, violent, womanizers and superior to women.

Although machismo (s) is the hegemonic masculinities that influence Latin American men behaviors, there is a significant variation on how masculinities are enacted. The spectrum of behaviors and gender relations can range from strongly unequal to gender equal. In spite of this, the different forms of gender based violence (psychological, physical, sexual, controlling behavior, feminicide) are common, every day practices.

The Nicaraguan context
In Nicaragua, the different forms of gender based violence (VAW) represent a serious public health issue and a significant burden on women´s and their children´s health. Population-based cross-sectional studies have found a high prevalence of Intimate partner violence (IPV), one of the most common forms of VAW. According to the most recent national survey, 21% of women reported being exposed to emotional, physical, or sexual abuse by their partners in the past year. The prevalence of sexual violence is also high, affecting young women, girls and adolescents. One population-based study found that 26% of women have experienced any form of sexual abuse before reaching 19 years of age.

Aims
The aim of this study is to explore how young men understand their involvement in actions aimed to prevent or deter VAW, what actions they do to (if any) to prevent or stop VAW , what factors might influences their decision to act or not and what pathways did they follow to reach their decision to act. As the WHO has identified that involving men in gender equity programs is a paramount step in ending gender based violence, I believe that the findings of this study will contribute to design evidence based interventions in this population.