National Research on Domestic Violence Against Women in

Respondent N 3: “Cultivating the land.”Respondent N 10: “Physical work at home and outside.”Respondent N 8: “Laundry, housework, working in thegarden, taking care of children and helping them withhomework, etc.”Respondent N 4: “I think it is everyone’s destiny here.”[From a focus group discussion with women, aged 35-59, Telavi, Kakheti region]The question remains: If women living in rural areas dophysical work both at home and outside - starting fromhousework and ending with cultivating land - what kindof work do the rural men do and how does it happenthat “in most cases it’s the man who works”? Given thatthese notions are held by female respondents, it shouldnot be surprising that males view gender equality in thevery same light.Male respondent N 1: “...Why not, if women and menhave equal rights, women should also herd cattle, takeup arms and fight in a war if necessary.”Moderator: “Should men also do women’s work?”Respondent N 1: “How can it happen? A man cannotraise children, can he? A family should be taken care of,laundry should be washed, meals should be cooked, anda man cannot do it, he cannot wash laundry as it is notin his genes.”[From a focus group discussion with men, aged 35-59,Telavi, Kakheti region]It can be inferred from this short discussion that, in themale respondents’ understanding, gender equality impliesthat women can do men’s work but not the otherway around. And if men cannot do housework anddo laundry just because “it is not in male genes,” doeshaving female “genes” really imply herding cattle andfighting in a war? It is hard to believe that women themselvesassume that they should do all kinds of physicalwork inside and outside, and it is noteworthy that such aperception of gender equality is characteristic to malesand females from both the capital and the regions. Stillthe following issue is the most important one: How canour respondents have a proper understanding of gender-baseddomestic violence if they are not aware ofwhat gender equality is?The easiest way to get familiar with their views aboutdomestic violence is to present the list of concepts mostfrequently associated with domestic violence, ascertainedfrom the quantitative content analysis of theirideas. Such an analysis highlights that for our researchsubjects, violence usually means cruelty, humiliation(both physical assault and verbal insult), beating, imposingone’s opinion on others, making someone dosomething against one’s will, etc. The forms of violencemost frequently identified by the respondents includephysical and verbal violence, however, the victims of domesticviolence living in shelters or having experience ofstaying at shelters in the past and being provided specialservices, as well as experts and service providers, emphasizepsychological, economic, and sexual violence inaddition to physical and verbal violence.Why don’t others (both males and females) identifysuch forms of violence as psychological, economic, andsexual? Why do the victims often confess that they havebeen experiencing psychological or economic violencefor several years or maybe even decades without knowingthey were victims? And why do the experts and serviceproviders state that these forms of violence are asdangerous as and sometimes even worse than physicalviolence?“... Psychological violence provokes similarly dreadfuloutcomes. However, it is not visible and therefore, hardto combat. Physical violence results in obvious physicalsigns, and as everyone can see them, such violence canbe resisted. It’s hard to put up resistance against psychologicalviolence on the other hand.” (Expert, Telavi)“I work at an NGO on this particular issue. I deal with thevictims of violence and know that physical violence is thefinal stage. Thus, first come such forms as psychological,emotional, economic, and sexual violence, and finally,physical violence. But the problem is that unless a victimexperiences physical violence, she does not understandthat she is a victim.” (Service provider, Tbilisi)“Psychological violence is not perceived as violence byour women. They think it’s natural that someone shouldbe psychologically dominant in a family... Sexual violenceis reported in the very last case, as they are ashamedand hide it though we grasp from their talks that it alwaysis accompanied by physical violence.” (Service provider,Tbilisi)“Women usually don’t know what economic violence is.NATIONAL RESEARCH ON DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN IN GEORGIA63