A third of young people in Germany consider the use of violence against women acceptable, according to a new survey that has sparked outrage among gender equality activists.
The survey was commissioned by children’s charity Plan International Germany. The results were published in the regional newspaper Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung.
A group of 1,000 men and 1,000 women aged between 18 and 35 from across Germany were asked to give their views on masculinity for the study, which was conducted online.
34% of men in this age group admitted to having been violent with their partners in the past, to “induce respect in them”. 33% said they found it acceptable for their “hand to slip” occasionally during an argument with their partner.
Exploring attitudes towards victim blaming and double standards, the survey found that 50% of men said they would not want to be in a relationship with a woman who has had many sexual partners, while 20% of women surveyed agreed with this statement.
The survey also found that expectations within a relationship differ greatly between men and women.
Just over half of the men – 52% – wanted a relationship in the form of a “model boss-at-home wife”, where they earned most of the money for the house and the care of the children and the housework was mainly the woman’s .
More than two-thirds of the women surveyed disagreed, wanting equal partnerships and shared decision-making.
Just under half of those polled – 48% – expressed dislike for public displays of homosexuality, saying they felt “disturbed” by it.
A German group called the Federal Organization for Equality wrote on Twitter that the findings were “shocking”.
“According to a survey by Plan International Germany, one in three young people find violence against women ‘acceptable’. This urgently needs to change!” the group wrote.
Karsten Kassner of the Federal Forum Men, a group that advocates for gender equality, also called for changes, saying: “It is problematic that a third of men surveyed trivialize physical violence against women.”
According to data from the German Federal Criminal Police (BKA), 115,000 women in Germany were victims of domestic violence in 2021.
Germany also has one of the highest rates of femicide in Europe – a problem that has been exacerbated during the coronavirus pandemic, according to BKA data.
Source: CNN Brasil
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