Beware of Groups Pushing Hateful Gender Stereotypes and Weakening the Family

PRESS RELEASE

Contact: Rebecca Hain

Telephone: 513-479-3335

Beware of Groups Pushing Hateful Gender Stereotypes and Weakening the Family

WASHINGTON / February 20, 2023 – The family is the bedrock of society. Families confer a broad range of social, psychological, and financial benefits on its members (1). For example, couples in a stable, married relationship have much lower levels of domestic violence (2).

Surprisingly, some groups are working to marginalize families, claiming that families are “oppressive.” They seek to weaken the family by promoting domestic violence myths and stereotypes.

One such group, “Every Woman Treaty,” is calling on countries around the world to implement a global treaty to end domestic violence (3). Unfortunately, the group is making claims that are refuted by science and serve to promote hateful gender stereotypes (4). “Every Woman Treaty” ignores the existence of an overwhelming body of research that shows women commit domestic violence at rates that are similar to, or even higher than men.

One summary of 343 scholarly investigations conducted in 40 countries concludes, “women are as physically aggressive as men (or more) in their relationships with their spouses or opposite-sex partners.” (5) Another review of domestic violence victimization rates around the world reports, “Past year rates [are] somewhat higher among men.” (6)

Following is a selection of country- or region-specific summaries of the domestic violence research:

United States: 6.4 million men and 5.6 million women annually are victims of physical violence by an intimate partner, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (7).
Canada: “2.9% of men and 1.7% of women reported experiencing physical and/or sexual IPV in their current relationships in the last 5 years.” (8)
Europe: 15.2% of males and 14.8% of females report being victims of domestic violence in the past year (9).
Latin America: 54.3% of male-female comparisons reveal similar abuse rates between the sexes. Most of the asymmetrical findings involve a female perpetrator and male victim (10).
Australia: Men and women “experience domestic violence at similar rates.” (11)

Flatly ignoring these studies, “Every Woman Treaty” makes these claims:

“Covid-19 has intensified violence against women and girls” – Analyses of calls to the Domestic Violence Hotline, requests for police service, and the actual commission of domestic violence crimes show no increase during periods of COVID lockdowns (12).
“Technology has generated new forms of violence against women” – In truth, men report being physically threatened online far more often than women — 16% vs. 11% — according to the Pew Research Center (13).
“One in two women report that they or a woman they know have experienced violence since the Covid-19 pandemic.” – Relying on unverifiable claims about a “woman they know” lacks any semblance of scientific validity.

Most egregious is, “Armed conflict creates environments ripe for violence against women and girls” – a claim that denies the common-sense fact of “much higher rates of violent deaths amongst men than women during wartime.” (14)

The claims of “Every Woman Treaty” lack any basis in scientific fact. They are a hoax. The Domestic Abuse and Violence International Alliance calls on lawmakers around the world to reject false domestic violence stereotypes, and embrace abuse reduction approaches that are based on science.

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