gisw13_chapters

with all my life. If I have five children you willrealise from my situation…” And then she beganto cry. The workshop was extremely intense,not only for them, for me too, despite havingworked on these issues. But, of course, these issuesare much more complicated in reality. Thatwas just on the first day. 7Women, asking women about their lives, trying tounravel the complex web of individual and socialexperiences, making them visible in a society thathas systematically refused to recognise this complexity.And it still does not recognise it. But thesurvey revealed some very complex and alarmingsituations.Amongst the most troubling findings is that inEcuador, six out of ten women have experiencedsome form of violence, whether physical, psychological,sexual or related to property and assets. 8While it was revealed that one out of fourwomen has experienced some form of sexualviolence, the most recurrent form of violence ispsychological, which reinforces the existence ofa social and cultural problem. Restrictions facedby women mean that such violence is difficult toverify, punish or treat. The survey also revealedthat this is the case regardless of ethnic selfidentification,income and even educational level:52.8% of women with graduate degrees have sufferedsome form of violence. And despite this, orperhaps because of it, only 20.6% of cases resultin formal complaints.The most widely shared story from the researchwas the case of Karina del Pozo. It isbelieved that this young woman was raped andmurdered by men she knew, and her murderwas described as a case of femicide. While inEcuador there is no specific criminalisation ofthis type of crime (differentiated, that is, fromhomicide), since October 2011, and coincidingwith the start of the survey, people started usingthe term femicide for the first time in messagesposted on Twitter from Ecuadorian accounts. Accordingto the website Topsy, which specialises insocial network analysis, before October 2011 thehashtag #femicide had not been used in Ecuador.However, its use reached a peak between Februaryand March 2013, coinciding with the spreadof the Karina del Pozo case. Over 100 messageswere written, while the hashtag #KarinadelPozowas retweeted 15,000 times.It is safe to assume that this, and all the othercases that became visible after it, have allowedthe issue of femicide to enter the Ecuadorian imaginary,and helped gather support for a proposalto include this specific type of crime in the CriminalCode. Prior to the survey, this kind of proposalwould have been more difficult and met with greaterresistance.ConclusionsThe conclusion of this experience, which is stillongoing, is that information is a scarce andmuch-needed resource. It can change collectivebehaviour and perception, and support the possibilityof reconstructing an image of a society andits culture. The legitimacy of the information is important.In this case the survey was lent legitimacythrough its design, its multisectoral support andinput, and the implementation process. The kindof pressure exerted through these platforms can,at least as shown in the case of Ecuador, lead todiscussion of a dark side of the reality and identityof nations, and to beginning to recognise problemsthat are hidden under very strong and capableformer customs, labels, recriminations and socialsanctions.Action stepsIt is necessary not only to spread these socialdiscussions through media platforms, but to encourageactivists, organisations and the public ingeneral to demand more information from institutions,exercising the right of access to information.It is also necessary for people to ask questionsabout themselves, of their own behaviours thatthey feel are “natural”, to be critical and to transformas a human collective. ■7 Interview with Alba Pérez, 19 April 2013.8 “The gender asset gap in Latin America with respect to ownershipof land is significant. In few countries do women constituteeven one-quarter of the landowners. Gender inequality inland ownership is related to male preference in inheritance,male privilege in marriage, male bias in community and stateprogrammes of land distribution as well as gender bias in the landmarket, with women less likely than men to be successful buyers.”Deere, C. D. and León, M. (2003) The Gender Asset Gap: Land inLatin America, World Development, 31(6), p. 925-947.120 / Global Information Society Watch