Information and violence against women. Reference Center for

women Ednalva Bezerra.Gisele Rocha Côrtes - Professor. Department of Information Science in Federal University of Paraíba (UFPB). PhD in Sociology. E-mail: giselerochacortes@gmail.com – Phone: (83) 98243113

Maria Cristiana Félix Luciano - Student of the 6th semester of Librarianship Course in UFPB. cristiana2012.felix@gmail.com – Phone: (83) 98022795

Laizla Cristie - Student of the 6th semester of Librarianship Course in UFPB - laizllacristie@gmail.com – Phone: (83) 86344568

Violence is a violation of human rights based on deep inequalities of gender in society, which affects thousands of

women in all ages, of various social classes, from different regions, ethnic-racial groups, levels of education and religion

around the world. The data of the violence map (WAISELFISZ, 2012) indicate that Brazil is in the seventh position in

relation to the incidence of women homicides, in a global ranking with 84 countries. Along the years, researches have

evidenced that violence is committed by the own "partner"/ husband at home, in most cases. Other aggressors cited are

ex-husband, ex-"partner" and ex-boyfriend who, added to husband or partner, compose significant majority in all cases

(VENTURI; RECAMÁN; OLIVEIRA; 2004, FUNDAÇÃO..., 2010). The lack of official statistics is one of the biggest

challenges in prevention and coping crimes against women in Brazil, limiting the actions of the attendance organs,

governmental actions, social control and the materialization of researches for understanding the phenomenon (NJAINE,

et al., 1997; CAMARGO AQUINO, 2003; FERREIRA, 2007; PRÁ, 2010) The role of information scientists in this

scenario is based on the social responsibility of facilitating communication, "[...] knowledge for those who need it in

contemporary society, but, especially, as tes of the historic process of transformation of mankind." (FREIRE, 2003, p.

59).

INTRODUCTION

The study was based on a quantitative approach, in which we aim to classify and describe indicators and observable tendencies of the

profile of assisted women (MINAYO; SANCHES, 1993). The data collection was dynamised by means of documental research, with focus

on the individual records of women who accessed RCWEB. The records of 1,227 women who accessed it from 2007 to 2011were

organized, classified and grouped. Then, a database was created, with records of 922 women who suffered violence of consort or ex-

consort (companion, ex-companion, husband, ex-husband, boyfriend and ex-boyfriend). The data analysis, to map the profile of women,

was dynamised by descriptive statistics.

AMARAL, C. C. G. et al. Dores visíveis: violência em delegacias da mulher no Nordeste. Fortaleza: REDOR/NEGIF/UFC, 2001.

BRASIL. Presidência da República. Secretaria Especial de Políticas para as Mulheres. Rede de Enfrentamento à Violência contra as

Mulheres. Brasília, 2011. Available at: < http://www.sepm.gov.br/publicacoes-teste/publicacoes/2011/rede-de-enfrentamento>.

Access on: 08 July 2012.

CAMARGO, M.; AQUINO, S. Políticas públicas estratégicas na proteção às mulheres. In: BRASIL. Presidência da República.

Secretaria Especial de Políticas para as Mulheres - Diálogos sobre a violência doméstica e de gênero: construindo políticas para as

mulheres. Brasília: [s.n.], 2003.

FERREIRA, M. F. O profissional da informação no mundo do trabalho e as relações de gênero. Transinformação, Campinas, v. 15,

p. 189-201, 2003.

FREIRE, I. M. O olhar da consciência possível sobre o campo científico. Ci. Inf., Brasília, v. 32, n. 1, p. 50-59, jan./abr.

2003.FUNDAÇÃO PERSEU ABRAMO. Mulheres brasileiras e gênero nos espaços público e privado 2010. [S. l.]: SESC, 2010.

Available at: <http://www.fpa.org.br/o-que-fazemos/pesquisas-de-opiniao-publica/pesquisas-realizadas/pesquisa-mulheres-

brasileiras-nos-es.> Access on : 17 Sep. 2012.

MINAYO, M. C.; SANCHES, O. Quantitativo-qualitativo: oposição ou complementaridade? Caderno de Saúde Pública, São Paulo,

v. 9, n. 3, p. 239-262, 1993.

NJAINE, K. et al. A produção da (des)informação sobre violência: análise de uma prática discriminatória. Caderno de Saúde

Pública, Rio de Janeiro, v.3, n.3, p. 405-414, set.1997.

PRÁ, J. R. Metodologias feministas, gênero, políticas públicas e o monitoramento da Lei Maria da Penha. In: RIAL, C.; PEDRO, J.

M; FAVERO, S. M. Diversidades. Santa Catarina, Mulheres, 2010. p. 81-102.

SAFFIOTI, H. I. B.; ALMEIDA, S. S. Violência de Gênero: Poder e Impotência. Rio de Janeiro: Revinter, 1995.

VENTURI, G.; RECAMÁM, M.; OLIVEIRA, S. A mulher brasileira nos espaços público e privado. São Paulo: Fundação Perseu

Abramo, 2004.

WAISELFIZ, J. J. Mapa da violência 2012: Atualização Homicídio de Mulheres no Brasil. São Paulo: Flacso: Available at:

<//www.agenciapatriciagalvao.org.br/images/stories/PDF/pesquisas/MapaViolencia2012_atual_mulheres.pdfência>. Access on: 13

Sep. 2012.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Our special acknowledgements to the entire staff of the Reference Center for Women "Ednalva Bezerra" and to the Secretary of Policies

for Women of João Pessoa, by the availability and host.

METHODOLOGY

YEAR WOMEN

2007 112

2008 210

2009 228

2010 203

2011 169

TOTAL 922

Table 1 – Women assisted at RCWEB who suffered violence of ex-companion

Source: Research data, 2013

The RCWEB was implemented on September 14, 2007 in João Pessoa. A multidisciplinary team performs reception,

social, psychological, and legal care, and art education for women in situation of domestic and familiar violence. In this

sense, the Reference Centers for Women are information units that, daily, produces informational contents of

subversion and resignification of crystallized and historic structures which embase male domination and contribute to

rescue the self-esteem, autonomy, and emancipation of women under violence situation.

The Brazilian Secretary of Policies to Women was created in 2003, by means of Law No. 10863, May 28, 2003. It aims

to formulate, coordenate and articulate policies to women. For more information: http://www.spm.gov.br/sobre

SEARCH FIELD

RCWEB PHOTOS

The present research, conducted under the Institutional Program for Undergraduate Research at Federal University of

Paraíba, was developed from 2007 to 2011. Moreover, we worked with information whose focus is the characterization

of women profiles under violence situation committed by the (ex) partner that accessed the Reference Center for Women

Ednalva Bezerra (RCWEB), a service of the program of prevention and coping of violence in João Pessoa/ Paraíba.

The project is linked to the Intellectual Technologies Laboratory (ITL) of the Department of Information Science -

Federal University of Paraíba (UFPB). For more information: http://dci.ccsa.ufpb.br/lti/

OBJECTIVES

Yoga Classes

For this work, we present graphs and analysis about the relation of the assisted women with the author of violence, age group, educational

level, occupation, ethnic-racial characterization, income.

36%

17%

21%

17%

6%

0% 0%3%

Relation with the author of violence

Relation with the author of violence

13%

26% 26%

17%

10%

2% 1% 1% 1% 1%

Age Group

Age Group

5%

28%

8%

16%

21%

17%

2% 3%

Educational Level

Educational Level

5%2%

11%

2%

30%

3% 2% 2% 3%5%

2% 1% 1%

20%

11%

Occupation

Occupation

White Black Brown Yellow Indigenous Other Uninformed

31%

18%

22%

2%0%

19%

8%

Ethnic-racial characterization

Ethnic-racial characterization

Until 1Minimum

wage (MW)

+ 1 to 2 mw + 2 to 3 mw + 3 to 5 mw + 5 mw Uninformed No income

21%

12%

2% 2% 1%

51%

11%

Income

Income

RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

From 2007 to 2011, 922 women looked for RCWEB and they declared having suffered violence of (companion, ex-companion,

husband, ex-husband, boyfriend and ex-boyfriend). The proportion of women who declared having suffered violence in the

ambit of affective relations between women along the researched years was inferior to 1%. Most of women who accessed the

service affirmed having suffered psychological, physical, patrimonial, moral, sexual, and death threats of consorts and ex-

consorts. These data reveal that the violence committed against women are not aleatory or accidental. They are based in deep

relations of power historically constructed, that allocate to men powers to standardize, control, and discipline the life and

conduct of women, using different ways of humiliation and privation (SAFFIOTI, 2001). The presented results evidence the

high level of social vulnerability in which women are inserted: low educational level, precarious economic and professional

occupation, informality. This way, they appoint to the necessity of transversality of public policies and the development of

professional courses, cooperatives, programs of alphabetization, to face the situation of exclusion that difficult the exercise of

autonomy of women and increases the vulnerability to break with the situation of violence. Another factor to be highlighted is

the need of RCWEB promote courses, workshops, campaigns to combat violence with focus on ethnic-racial characterization.

It is also important to emphasize that the presented panorama do not indicate that violence is related to women of lower social

classes. Gender violence is transversal, it is a "[...] phenomenon distributed democratically" (SAFFIOTI; ALMEIDA, 1995).

Therefore, it is possible to infer that RCWEB has been accessed by the most socially excluded women, mainly, because the

situation of social and economic vulnerability make difficult the access to therapeutic and juridical assistance, yoga classes,

among the services offered by the Center. This way, we can affirm that RCWEB has been configured as an affirmative action of

social inclusion and rescue of feminine citizenship.

There are still gaps in the records, for example, in the high incidence of women who do not fill the income of women who

accessed RCWEB (51%). Then , the systematization of information through the created database has contributed to supply

gaps in registers, to elaborate diagnostics and actions according to the informational necessities of women and for the

delimitation of prerogatives of Maria da Penha Law (11.340/06). Then, it is expected that the Union, the states and

municipalities promote statistics related to the causes, consequences and frequency of violence, to the monitoring of public

policies.

FINAL CONSIDERATIONS

In this perspective, the present work can contribute to the study of social processes of production and communication of

information, and propose actions of networked information. Therefore, we believe that Information Science, in its

assumptions of disseminating, democratize, and exchange information, is a great ally to strengthen public policies, as

well as to prevent, publicize and guarantee the human rights of women.

REFERENCES