Stigma, Shame and Women's Limited Agency in Help-Seeking for Intimate Partner Violence

doi:10.1080/17441692.2015.1047391

Publication:
Stigma, Shame and Women's Limited Agency in Help-Seeking for Intimate Partner Violence

dc.contributor.author	Namy, Sophie
dc.contributor.author	McCleary-Sills, Jennifer
dc.contributor.author	Nyoni, Joyce
dc.contributor.author	Rweyemamu, Datius
dc.contributor.author	Salvatory, Adrophina
dc.contributor.author	Steven, Ester
dc.date.accessioned	2015-09-28T14:59:31Z
dc.date.available	2015-09-28T14:59:31Z
dc.date.issued	2015-06-08
dc.description.abstract	In Tanzania, 44% of women experience intimate partner violence (IPV) in their lifetime, but the majority never seeks help, and many never tell anyone about their experience. Even among the minority of women who seek support, only 10% access formal services. Our research explored the social and structural barriers that render Tanzanian women unable to exercise agency in this critical domain of their lives. We collected qualitative data in three regions of Tanzania through 104 key informant interviews with duty bearers and participatory focus groups with 96 male and female community members. The findings revealed numerous sociocultural barriers to help-seeking, including gendered social norms that accept IPV and impose stigma and shame upon survivors. Because IPV is highly normalised, survivors are silenced by their fear of social consequences, a fear reinforced by the belief that it is women’s reporting of IPV that brings shame, rather than the perpetration of violence itself. Barriers to help-seeking curtail women’s agency. Even women who reject IPV as a ‘normal’ practice are blocked from action by powerful social norms. These constraints deny survivors the support, services and justice they deserve and also perpetuate low reporting and inaccurate estimates of IPV prevalence.	en
dc.identifier.citation	Global Public Health
dc.identifier.doi	10.1596/22691
dc.identifier.issn	1744-1692
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/10986/22691
dc.language.iso	en_US
dc.publisher	Taylor and Francis
dc.rights	CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 IGO
dc.rights.holder	World Bank
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/igo
dc.subject	intimate partner violence
dc.subject	help-seeking
dc.subject	stigma
dc.subject	social norms
dc.title	Stigma, Shame and Women's Limited Agency in Help-Seeking for Intimate Partner Violence	en
dc.type	Journal Article	en
dc.type	Article de journal	fr
dc.type	Artículo de revista	es
dspace.entity.type	Publication
okr.associatedcontent	http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17441692.2015.1047391 Journal website (version of record)
okr.crosscuttingsolutionarea	Gender
okr.date.disclosure	2017-01-09
okr.date.doiregistration	2025-05-06T11:23:11.822617Z
okr.doctype	Publications & Research
okr.doctype	Publications & Research::Journal Article
okr.externalcontent	External Content
okr.globalpractice	Governance
okr.guid	503171483962012939
okr.identifier.doi	10.1080/17441692.2015.1047391
okr.journal.nbpages	224-35
okr.language.supported	en
okr.peerreview	Academic Peer Review
okr.region.country	Tanzania
okr.topic	Gender::Gender and Law
okr.topic	Law and Development::Law and Gender
okr.topic	Social Development::Crime and Society
okr.unit	GCGDR
okr.volume	11(1-2)
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relation.isAuthorOfPublication.latestForDiscovery	efe09ad6-9efa-56c7-98af-124875dcf8fc