Redes de apoyo como factor de soporte en casos de violencia sexual en parejas

Abstract

Introduction: Sexual violence against women within an intimate relationship is very frequent. About 14.5% of ecuadorian women have experienced sexual violence perpetrated by their partners. Such violence has been culturally normalized due to the myths that justify this type of practice, where women are seen as sexual objects and responsible for fulfilling a conjugal duty created by a patriarchal society. The support networks that women have are usually family members, friends or institutions that provide help or assistance in cases of gender-based violence. Materials and methods: The proposed research employs a quantitative approach, due to the use of the dispersion of dependencies grid (Kelly, 1955). Nevertheless, an interpretation and analysis of the discourse of the interviewed women with a narrative approach is also proposed, since it is necessary to know the opinion of the participants. Results: The results show the existence of sexual violence within intimate relationships, being identified that the 53.3% of the total sample of women have been forced to have sex. These data is the result of the number of women, who rarely, sometimes and often, have had sexual intercourse without their consent. It is important to take into account that with regard to support networks in general, women who experience violence turn to their mother with 62.7 % of frequency, mainly as informal support networks and to the psychologist with 61.3 % of frequency, as formal support networks. However, it is essential to notice that from the narrative analysis, women who have been victims of sexual violence perpetrated by their partners turn to formal support networks because of the shame and fear of retaliation against their loved ones. Conclusion: The interview, which had a narrative approach, allowed us to identify that, most of the women interviewed, considered the support network as an important help in cases of sexual violence occurred in an intimate relationship as part of gender-based violence.