FEAR AND SHAME AS BARRIERS TO OVERCOME DOMESTIC VIOLENCE GENDER

The objective is to understand – by means of the vulnerability concept – how the feelings of fear and shame associated with violent situations have an impact on the possibilities of women overcoming gender-based domestic violence. Although these feelings are considered a problem and are expressed according to each woman’s personal viewpoint, this article argues that the relationship between them and gender-based domestic violence is not an individual problem; rather it is a social and cultural violation of human rights. Based on sixteen interviews with women with a history of domestic violence, the vulnerability concept was used to analyse the relationship between the subjective perspectives of the interviewees and the programmatic and social components that make these women vulnerable. This is turn permitted the analyse of women’s social representations in relation to violence and to the means of confronting it, as well as women’s objective and subjective relationship with health services.