Denial of sexist violence is skyrocketing among young people and 20% no longer consider it a problem
The perception of sexist violence that young boys and girls (15 to 29 years old) have has grown unevenly in recent years. While they increasingly consider that this violence is a very serious social problem -72.4% in 2017 and 74.2% in 2021-, the percentage among boys who agree with this statement has decreased: from 54.2% in 2017 to just 50% in 2021. Furthermore, one in five young men - 20% - believes that gender-based violence does not exist and that it is an "ideological invention". A figure that doubles that of 2017.
These are some of the "worrying" data that it collects the Youth and Gender Barometer carried out by the Reina Sofía Center on Adolescence and Youth of the FAD, in which there is also an increase in the opinion that violence is "inevitable" and that, if it is of little intensity, "it is not a problem". The work, presented this Wednesday by the general director of Fad, Beatriz Martín Padura, and by the deputy director of the Reina Sofía Center on Adolescence and Youth, Anna Sanmartín, collects the research carried out through 1,200 interviews with young people between 15 and 29 years old about areas related to gender differences and inequalities, identities, affective experiences and perceptions of inequality between men and women.
20% more young women consider themselves feminist
Another of the data extracted from the barometer is the increase in young women who consider themselves feminist, of more than 20% (46.1% in 2017 compared to 67.1% this year), while among the men has risen nine points (from 23.6% in 2017 to 32.8% in 2021).
With these data it is not surprising that 72.9% of young women consider that gender inequalities in Spain are "great" or "very great". A percentage that in men is reduced to 42.6%. Furthermore, one in ten considers that these inequalities do not exist.
They perceive this inequality, especially in the workplace: half of women consider that they are in a significantly worse position than men when it comes to accessing positions of responsibility or in salaries and 43.6% in family conciliation. Men also perceive these inequalities, but 20% less.
The violence
The study calls "worrying" the evolution of the degree of agreement regarding statements about gender violence, since among men only 50.4% consider it to be a "very serious" social problem. A percentage that has been reduced by 3.8 points since 2017. On the other hand, the categories that deny or limit the importance of this violence have experienced significant growth, especially among men (20.9% indicate that there is no ).
The perception of having witnessed situations of violence is more common among women, although it is common in both cases. The most common actions are to check the mobile (59.7% them, 38.7% them), control what the other person is doing (54.5% them, 28.4% them), tell them who they can talk to or go out with (51.6% women, 23.5% them), insult and humiliate their partner (49.8% women, 23.5% them) and try to isolate them from their friends (46% women, 22.5% they ).
More control by them
Also noteworthy is the greater propensity to control among men than among women: 18.1% of them see it as "normal" to look at the partner's mobile compared to 12.7% of them, as well as the perception of jealousy as a proof of love (28% between them and 15% between them). The study also concludes that, while women move towards a more egalitarian perception of couple relationships, in the case of men there is a certain persistence of traditional views of gender.
