Is Gender-Based Violence a Public Issue for All Women?: Exploring the Persistence of the Private and Intimate Family Conception in the Assessments of Women in CABA

Abstract

Using an analysis of the 2018 Survey on the Situation of Women in the City of Buenos Aires, this article explores the factors associated with the sociocultural norm that emphasizes the privacy and intimacy of the family. The results show that the women most likely to cleave to this norm are mainly older, with very low educational levels, not born in Argentina, and/or are unemployed or inactive. Supporting this private, intimate notion of the family is one of the obstacles to seeking containment and/or counsel-ing when women find themselves in a violent situation, which contributes to increasing the “hidden stats” about that violence. This article suggests that it is very important to take into consideration these groups of women most likely to believe in this idea to be more effective and efficient in de-signing and communicating current public policies.