Violence against women during the COVID-19 pandemic: types of occurrences from an ethnic perspective

Abstract

This study arose from an interest in finding out the profile of women who experienced violence during the Covid-19 pandemic. Given that black and brown women are more vulnerable to these occurrences, the aim was to comparatively describe the occurrence of types of violence in women in the state of Rio de Janeiro, considering their ethnicity and the period before, during and after the Covid-19 pandemic. This is a documentary, descriptive, retrospective study with a quantitative approach. Government documents obtained from the virtual platform of the Public Security Institute of Rio de Janeiro - ISP on the occurrence of violence against women from 2019 to 2022 in the state of Rio de Janeiro were analyzed. Among the main results, it was identified that women with a low level of schooling experience more violence than women with a higher level, as well as black and brown women experiencing more violence than white women. The low level of schooling (directly related to economic conditions) and skin color (being black or brown) showed an increase in women's vulnerability to experiencing violence. It was also possible to identify that the majority of employed women suffered more violence than unemployed women, as well as the fact that the main place of aggression was in the victim's home. Considering the results, there is an urgent need for socio-political actions to combat violence, valuing ethnicity, as well as other indicators of groups of women who are more vulnerable to violence.