Alfonso A. Violencia contra las mujeres. Un acercamiento al tema. [Violence against women. An approach to the subject.] Boletín SaluCo [Bulletin SaluCo] (Havana, Cuba) 2002; 1.

Objectives: To analyze the problem of violence against women in Cuba .

Methodology: Analytical and interpretive.

Results: The author analyzes data that show the progress that women have achieved beginning with the triumph of the Cuban Revolution. For example, when the Revolution occurred, 23% of women older than 10 years were illiterate, 71% were under-educated, and only 2% had completed middle school. In 1989, only 1.9% of women were illiterate.

The important gains that women have made in Cuba have contributed to the invisibility of violence against them in that country. Factors promoting such invisibility are: absence of violence as a controlling idea in the social consciousness (it has only been used to give a name to physical violence); treatment of the problem in the private sphere; absence of research on representative samples of the national population; absence of a unified system for collecting data that would permit generalizations and/or obligatory reporting of care provided to victims; limited number of accusations made by women, or the withdrawal of such accusations; absence of resources, both theoretical and methodological, to identify instances of violence against women; and scant information about the problem in writings directed to practitioners in general medicine.

The author presents data that demonstrate the existence of physical or psychological violence against women and children in Cuba . Children generally believe that women carry out maltreatment. Women still carry the primary responsibility for educating and providing care and stability for children. Women tend to transfer the misfortunes they suffer and violence they receive onto those who are most vulnerable, turning women into the perpetrators of intra-family violence. The most frequent form of violence is psychological.

This study found a non-significant relationship among socioeconomic situation, family structure, level of schooling, and psychiatric disturbances and/or addictions. This finding makes apparent the complexity of the problem, de-mystifies marginality as its sole cause, and recognizes the multiple causes of violence.

Conclusions: Prevention of violence against women should consider the following points: violence results from asymmetrical relationships between men and women; violence creates a health problem for its victims; violence is a social problem; it pertains to the rights of children; and it shows the need for a break with learned defenselessness.