Women’s and Men’s Status: Revisiting the Relationship Between Gender Equality and Intimate Partner Violence Against Women in Europe

Abstract

The first European Union Survey on Violence against Women (EU-VAW) released in 2014 revealed the unexpected result indicating that the world’s most egalitarian countries have relatively high rates of Intimate Partner Violence Against Women (IPVAW). This phenomenon, referred to as the “Nordic Paradox,” revived a heated, intermittently ongoing discussion dating back four decades where several competing hypotheses about the relationship between gender inequality and IPVAW have been proposed, but no consensus has been reached. The main aim of this paper is to revisit the most important of such hypotheses proposed in the last four decades, while proposing a new one that could potentially throw some light on understanding the “Nordic Paradox.” Multilevel linear regression models are estimated using data from the EU-VAW survey conducted in 2012, and an alternative operationalization of the Gender Equality Index (GEI) (our measure of gender equality). We did not find any significant effect of gender equality on IPVAW repetition. However, we found that higher country-level status of women and men go together with less IPVAW, with a larger effect of women’s status in economic domains compared to the impact of men’s economic status, and a larger effect of men’s overall status. These findings support the Marxist feminist hypothesis, stating that women’s absolute status in the economic and labor domain is critical in lessening IPVAW, as women’s real and potential access to resources is key for leaving a violent relationship. At the same time, our results support the “male privilege protection” hypothesis, which states that gains in women’s status in certain domains—such as in the economic sphere considering our results for the European Union—would not suppose a threat to men, allowing ameliorative effects. In contrast, if the overall status of men is threatened, backlash effects would be triggered.

Professional’s Views on the ‘Nordic Paradox’ in a Low Intimate Partner Violence Prevalence Country

“…The Nordic Paradox is a complex phenomenon that reflects the seemingly contradictory relationship between gender equality and IPVAW in Nordic countries (Gracia & Merlo, 2016). The growing interest in this paradox has led to an increasing number of studies that attempt to shed some light (Gómez-Casillas et al, 2023;Gracia et al, 2019;Ivert et al, 2020;Karlsson et al, 2022;Kosakowska-Berezecka et al, 2020;Wemrell et al, 2019Wemrell et al, , 2020Wemrell et al, , 2022. The aim of this work was to further the understanding of the Nordic Paradox by analyzing how professionals working in the field of gender-based violence in Spain, one of the EU countries with the lowest IPVAW prevalence rates, explain this phenomenon.…”

“…Although the Nordic Paradox represents a research question that remains unanswered, an increasing number of studies have investigated different explanatory hypotheses with the aim of shedding some light on this issue. (i.e., Gómez-Casillas et al, 2023;Gracia et al, 2019;Ivert et al, 2020;Karlsson et al, 2022;Kosakowska-Berezecka et al, 2020;Wemrell et al, 2019Wemrell et al, , 2020Wemrell et al, , 2022.…”

High Prevalence of Intimate Partner Violence Against Women in Young Adulthood: Is Prevention Failing?

“…The higher prevalence of IPVAW among younger people could also be the result of a backlash against increasing macro-level gender equality and IPVAW policies (Latzman et al, 2019; Roberts, 2011; Whaley & Messner, 2002; Xie et al, 2012). The backlash hypothesis has been proposed to explain the Nordic paradox phenomenon, according to which Nordic countries, which are among those with the highest levels of gender equality in the world, have at the same time high levels of IPVAW prevalence (Castro et al, 2022; Gómez-Casillas et al, 2023; Gracia & Merlo, 2016; Ivert et al, 2020; Wemrell et al, 2020). In recent years, Spain has experienced notable advances in gender equality and IPVAW policies, which may have led to a backlash effect.…”