COVID-19 and Latin America's domestic violence problem
An outbreak of disease in a globalized, interconnected world has led to one of the most disruptive events of 21st (and late 20th) century history. It has forced social distancing on people who have come to heavily
rely on immediate physical interaction to provide instant connectivity between members on different sides of the globe. As well as creating an epidemic of loneliness and separation where you are either forced to stay inside (wherever “inside” may be) or 6 feet apart from people you do not share a home with, COVID-19 has been very successful at putting us in close quarters with those with whom we do. This means a variety of things for different people; for some it is a chance to build better familial relationships, perhaps an opportunity to work on oneself. For others, it means being in constant never-ending contact with situations that might place their lives in peril- namely people who suffer from domestic abuse.
So what happens when home is revealed to be the least safe place for a great variety of individuals? A problem of gender equality emerges far more clearly, the way most power structures and inequalities have been
during a time where the vast majority of people fear food insecurity over catching a potentially lethal disease. The anxiety created by government enforced quarantine measures (see Peru and el Salvador) has translated into the way that society’s most marginalized groups are treated, especially within the confines of the household.
Latin America’s track record with issues related to gender has never been stellar, and now with this issue at hand one can very clearly see (if the skyrocketing femicide rates were not already clear enough) the fact that machismo is deeply imbued into the homes of most Latinx families, something egregiously heightened in times of crisis. Before COVID-19 was a movement of a scale unseen before across the continent, where numbers regarding prominent gender inequality moved millions of women to participate in protest action. Early March saw international women’s day mobilize crowds across Argentina, Chile, and particularly Mexico. Following this was a nationwide strike across Mexico where the country was left almost without women on the streets, shopping, working, or doing domestic chores at all as a statement on the unnoticed (yet essential)
presence of women in every area of life. Soon after followed an unprecedented storm that would place an abrupt halt to these movements, and with it a crisis of safety several governments were unequipped to deal with even more so.
According to the World Health Organization, the COVID-19 mantra of “stay at home” for 51% of ever partnered women in the Peruvian city of Lima is a sentence to spend every waking hour in spaces where their life is in constant danger. Where emergency calls on domestic abuse helplines have increased 25% in Argentina since the beginning of the pandemic, petitions for asylum from domestic abuse in Mexico have risen an
alarming 30%. The outlets women would have in a world of freer mobility have been significantly cut down, and rising financial problems in an impending economic disaster potentially worse than that of 2008 have come to exacerbate tensions present in Latin American households- forcing a great deal of women to carry the burden of their male partners’ frustrations. Domestic spaces in the region are increasingly shown to be places where women’s subservience is culturally demanded at all times in the presence of male figures. A lack of complicity spells disaster for women whose obligation it is to be at the beck and call of the people who now are incapable of leaving the home themselves. In said case, the domestic space becomes a crucible, where lockdown has created a sort of catalysis which has accelerated these cultural biases to an overwhelming degree. Marilú Rasso, director of one of the many asylum homes in Mexico City that have made their support networks very clear on social media since the rise of COVID-19 states “Gender stereotypes are being reinforced as women are placed in obligatory service positions” and adds that these heightened expectations in the mind of domestic aggressors allow anything to become a pretext for violence.
This problem has demonstrated itself perhaps to be the clearest sign of the lack of educational resources available to women across Latin America, where domestic abuse has become normalized as a regular part of
relationships in a heteronormative context. Women of lower income backgrounds have a harder time accessing anything past primary education, sometimes not even primary education at all- especially in rural areas of the continent. This factor significantly impedes opportunities for financial independence, added in with the fact that women tend to be expected to exclusively perform domestic labour where progressive mindsets are less readily present. As schools are being closed due to COVID-19 and distanced learning has a massive gendered impact: in the home, women and girls are overburdened by unpaid work as well as facing rising domestic violence rates. It is very probable that these factors might completely jeopardize their pursuit of an academic career, where following the pandemic crisis a vicious cycle continues. This places generations of women who might have access to education at further risk of violence in the future.
The response of certain governments has additionally been not only underwhelming but explicitly ignorant of the problem at hand, with people like Mexico’s president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador publicly denying a
spike in cases of domestic violence, rather an “increase in intra familiar fraternity.” On the other hand are opportunists like Brazil’s Jaír Bolsonaro who claims that “when bread is lacking” women are bound
to be beaten- his excuse to get Brazil to reopen and function to continue to benefit wealthy oligarchs. A refusal from political leaders to recognize structural inequalities and a need to hide behind facades has kept up the
commonly felt emotion between Latin Americans that their governments are not accountable to them. For this reason, extra-governmental networks have taken centre stage in resolving domestic violence issues across the continent.
Domestic violence in the time of COVID-19 has made plain issues of Latin American gender inequality, but with protest outlets currently limited for the region’s #NiUnaMenos movement, the future of the problem is
uncertain (as most things are at the moment). It is imperative that the momentum the movement gained before the pandemic took place is not completely lost. Progress is in the hands of the people, but is also the responsibility of governmental bodies who have shown incompetence or apathy in the face of gender issues in the past. One can only hope this might beget action and funding being put towards gender equality in a cultural region that so greatly suffers the catastrophic rage of machismo.
Banner image courtesy of MC2 Sean Hurt via Wikimedia.
