Citation

Glantz NM, Halperin DC. Reprod. Health Matters 1996; 4(7): 122-128.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1996, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/S0968-8080(96)90014-2

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

In 1994, the Comitdn Centre for Health Research and the College of the Southern Border in Chiapas, Mexico, launched an ethnographic study on sexual and reproductive health among Ladina women in the border region of Chiapas. Questions regarding alcohol abuse, violence and sexual coercion were included, because it was clear that these topics are closely intertwined. This paper presents some initial findings on the perceptions of 40 Ladina women regarding conjugal violence experienced by women in their community. When the women saw the victim's behaviour as the cause of the violence, they tended to suggest endurance as a strategy. When the cause was seen to be unrelated to the victim's behaviour, they tended to suggest resisting the violence or leaving the aggressor. Such violence often occurs in connection with pregnancy and delivery, and issues of fidelity and sexuality. It is a serious reproductive health problem, which undermines women's capacity to seek care for themselves and acts as a powerful deterrent to achieving gender equity in this society.