Centre d'Estudis Demogràfics, (CED-CERCA), UAB, Cerdanyola del Vallès 08193, Spain.
J Interpers Violence. 2023 Aug;38(15-16):8755-8784. doi: 10.1177/08862605231158760. Epub 2023 Mar 13.
The first European Union Survey on Violence against Women (EU-VAW) released in 2014 revealed the unexpected result indicating that the world's most egalitarian countries have relatively high rates of Intimate Partner Violence Against Women (IPVAW). This phenomenon, referred to as the "Nordic Paradox," revived a heated, intermittently ongoing discussion dating back four decades where several competing hypotheses about the relationship between gender inequality and IPVAW have been proposed, but no consensus has been reached. The main aim of this paper is to revisit the most important of such hypotheses proposed in the last four decades, while proposing a new one that could potentially throw some light on understanding the "Nordic Paradox." Multilevel linear regression models are estimated using data from the EU-VAW survey conducted in 2012, and an alternative operationalization of the Gender Equality Index (GEI) (our measure of gender equality). We did not find any significant effect of gender equality on IPVAW repetition. However, we found that higher country-level status of women and men go together with less IPVAW, with a larger effect of women's status in economic domains compared to the impact of men's economic status, and a larger effect of men's overall status. These findings support the Marxist feminist hypothesis, stating that women's absolute status in the economic and labor domain is critical in lessening IPVAW, as women's real and potential access to resources is key for leaving a violent relationship. At the same time, our results support the "male privilege protection" hypothesis, which states that gains in women's status in certain domains-such as in the economic sphere considering our results for the European Union-would not suppose a threat to men, allowing ameliorative effects. In contrast, if the overall status of men is threatened, backlash effects would be triggered.
2014 年发布的第一次欧盟暴力侵害妇女行为调查（EU-VAW）显示了一个出人意料的结果，表明世界上最平等的国家存在相对较高的亲密伴侣暴力侵害妇女行为（IPVAW）发生率。这种现象被称为“北欧悖论”，重新引发了一场激烈的、间歇性的持续讨论，这场讨论可以追溯到四十年前，当时提出了几个关于性别不平等与 IPVAW 之间关系的相互竞争的假设，但没有达成共识。本文的主要目的是重新审视过去四十年中提出的最重要的假设之一，并提出一个新的假设，该假设可能有助于理解“北欧悖论”。我们使用 2012 年进行的欧盟暴力侵害妇女行为调查的数据，以及性别平等指数（GEI）（我们衡量性别平等的指标）的替代操作化，估计了多层次线性回归模型。我们没有发现性别平等对 IPVAW 重复的任何显著影响。然而，我们发现，女性和男性的国家层面地位越高，IPVAW 就越少，女性在经济领域的地位对 IPVAW 的影响比男性经济地位的影响更大，男性的整体地位对 IPVAW 的影响也更大。这些发现支持了马克思主义女权主义假设，即妇女在经济和劳动领域的绝对地位对于减少 IPVAW 至关重要，因为妇女对资源的实际和潜在获取是离开暴力关系的关键。同时，我们的结果支持“男性特权保护”假设，即妇女在某些领域的地位提高——如考虑到我们对欧盟的结果，在经济领域——不会对男性构成威胁，从而产生改善效应。相比之下，如果男性的整体地位受到威胁，就会引发反弹效应。
