Unveiling the Hidden Data on Domestic Violence in the EU
Autumn 1999
There is not one single country in the world where women are free from violence. There is not one single area in any woman’s life where she is not exposed to the threat or actual acts of violence against her. Violence against women knows no geographical boundary, no age limit, no class distinction, no race, no cultural difference and manifests itself in many different ways.
- Unveiling the hidden data
“On ne naît pas femme, on le devient”. “You are not born a woman, you become one”, according to Simone de Beauvoir. The study is firmly set within a feminist framework. While it accepts that domestic violence can be approached from a number of different angles, the most frequent being that of family policy, this study has purposely chosen to understand the family to be a microcosm of wider society, in which the dynamics of gender inequality are reproduced daily. Inequality, therefore, is understood to constitute structural violence. The most notable statistic is that 95% of all acts of violence are perpetrated by men against women known to them. These acts of violence take place most frequently in the home.
