Today’s girls grow up with fear that Love, family and work – the areas that should guarantee security and realization – can instead be transformed into spaces of violence and discrimination. This is demonstrated by the investigation of the defenseless observatory of Terre des Hommes and uncomfortablewhich collected the item of over 2,900 young people on the occasion of International Women’s Day. The data are clear: gender -based violence is perceived as a concrete and widespread threat, while sexism continues to hinder female professional aspirations. Faced with this reality, the request is unanimous: to introduce emotional education in schools to counter prejudices and abuse.
Among the under 26, 40% of the girls interviewed identifies in love relationships the area in which it is more likely to undergo violence. Another 38% also indicates the family as a place at risk of violence. These percentages rise with the growth of age: among the 26 -year -old girls or more, in fact, the family, which in this age group stops being the one of origin to become the one that is built, reaches 58%, becoming the place perceived as most at risk of violence. Love, with 46%, is also reported by multiple girls.
The same question submitted to male peers obtains different answers: among the under 26 only 25% indicate love and 30% the family as potential scenarios of violence; Among the largest the family is 49% and love at 34%.
Another figure arouses concern: at 1 under 26 years out of 5 it does not create problems that the partner accesses his cell phone as a form of control. Even if most, 79.5%, consider it unacceptable, remains a small percentage, 1%, which appreciates it as if it were a form of respect. With the growth of age, however, the awareness that this practice is unacceptable increases: among the 26 -year -old girls or more 88% do not accept this check, at 12% do not create problems and only 0.35% consider it a form of respect.
Also in this case male peers have a different opinion: for 30% of minors of 26 years and 22% of over 26 cell control is not a problem and for 5.5% of the younger ones and 2.5% of the older ones are even a form of respect.
It is not only personal and sentimental relationships that worry the girls and to be conditioned by the kind of belonging: even the career that choose to undertake the affection of their being women. More than half (56%) of the girls interviewed believes that retrograde and male -sighted stereotypes and cultural features can limit their choices concerning study and career. Perception that increases only slightly with age: Among the 26 -year -old girls or more 58% think so. This risk weighs even more (at 65% between the under 26 and 68% between the over) between those who declare themselves not binary, but much less among males (25.5% under 26 years, 28% for 26 years or more). The other limits perceived by the young under 26 are: lack of a support network (27%), lack of economic stability of the family (24.5%), lack of models to be inspired by (19%), missed family support (10%), failure to support peers (7.5%). Only 24% of under 26 girls and 11% of non -binary people have no limits in their professional career, compared to 31.5% of male peers.
The girls are therefore aware of how much there is still to be done to contrast violence and gender discrimination and strongly believe in the importance of sexual-affective education at school. 95% of under 26 believe it can be useful to limit gender violencewith 60% who is absolutely convinced and 35% who think can prevent it in part. And 91.5% of male peers and 89% of non -binary people are also convinced. Only 2.5% of girls and 4% of boys, but 7% of those who consider themselves not binary, instead believe that even a sexual-affective education taught at school would be useless to prevent gender-based violence.
The younger ones indicate the themes they would like to be treated within the school paths of sexual-affective education: Consent and respect in relationships (females 77%; males 64%; 76%non -binary people), management of relationships and emotions (F 62%, m 57%, NB 47%)contraception and prevention of sexually transmitted diseases (F 45%, 46%m, NB 44%), gender equality and contrast to stereotypes (F 44%, m 35%, NB 34.5%), sexual orientation and gender identity (F 22%, M 28%, NB 54.5%), body anatomy and changes during growth (F 15.5%, m 19%, 9%). Paths to get to know your desires better (F 14%, M 16%, NB 9%).
“It’s time to deal with sexual-affective education. We can no longer wait by leaving our boys and girls more and more at the mercy of a narrative entrusted to the only violent and male chauvinist representation of pornography. It is from the education programs that we must start to unhinge the patriarchal culture in which we live and that is growing generations of young women who fear the spheres of life that most should give security and satisfaction: love, family and career. ” Paolo Ferrara, General Manager of Terre des Hommes Italia says. “With our defenseless observatory for more than 10 years we have been a megaphone of the voice of many and many teenagers, trying to guide the policies of the institutions and the educating community and today, on the occasion of March 8, we want to be the spokespersons of this request: to introduce sexual-affective education in schools».
«It is no coincidence that over 40% of the under 26 interviewed girls think that the most probable place where to undergo violence is within their love relationship. We live in the awareness that gender -based violence is rooted and manifests itself first of all in our love relationships, in family and in the relationships we have with people close to us. We are constantly exposed to a media narrative that tries to reduce the violence we suffer on the roads, to night clubs, to public transport, when what we really live daily is the fear that the people we share with a relationship can exercise any form of violence on us “, declares the editorial director of uncomfortable Pellizzari Cecilia”The claim of a form of sexual-affective education in schools cannot go into the background. We have been making training and self -information in the intermediate spaces that has always been. Now it is necessary that school and institutions are responsible for guaranteeing this training, in dialogue with feminist realities that have been dealing with this for decades, so that all people who attend public schools are exposed in the same way to a training capable of putting fundamental pieces for the fight against gender -based violence “.
