30.3% of women have suffered some type of sexist violence by men with whom they have or have had a relationship. There are six and a half million women against whom their partners have exercised physical, sexual, psychological or economic abuse at some point in their lives. This is stated by the Macrosurvey on Violence against Women 2025 made public this Wednesday by the Ministry of Equality, the seventh carried out to date and the largest statistical operation carried out in our country on sexist violence.
“Sexist violence continues to be a prevalent, transversal, structural reality that conditions the lives of many women. It is chronic violence in our society,” said Minister Ana Redondo. By type of violence, 12.7% of women over 16 years of age have suffered physical or sexual violence (9.2% and 7.7% respectively), which translates into more than two and a half million women. Almost 80% assert that violence occurred on more than one occasion. The survey was carried out on a total of 11,800 women, which in the opinion of the minister allows for “a global overview” of sexist violence.
The survey asks about various types of violence, including economic violence, which includes behaviors such as using credit cards and requesting loans in your name without your consent, preventing you from accessing your bank account or excessively controlling your spending. 11.7% of those surveyed claim to have endured this type of abuse from their partner at some point in their lives, a “silent” but “devastating” violence that “limits their autonomy and, on many occasions, their possibility of getting out of violence,” said the Government delegate against Gender Violence, Carmen Martínez Perza. If the imago of alimony is added to the calculation when there are common sons or daughters, the percentage increases to 13.5%.
The macro survey published this Wednesday also reflects that 20.9% of women residing in Spain have suffered psychological violence at some point in their lives and 25.1% have suffered psychological control violence. Statistics reveal that violence intersects and in many cases occurs at the same time: in practically all of the cases (96.6%) in which there was physical or sexual violence, there was also psychological or economic violence.
The study analyzes whether women have reported the violence suffered and concludes that only 16.8% have gone themselves or someone close to them to the Police or the court. The report delves into the reasons and highlights two main ones: half say that they did not report because “she resolved it on her own” and 32% did not consider it necessary or gave it little importance. However, 41.4% of them have resorted to some type of resource or assistance service and the vast majority, 71.7%, told someone close to them. The report estimates that more than one million children or adolescents live in homes where women suffer some type of violence.
“Sexist violence is also a public health issue,” Perza warned when presenting data on the consequences of violence on women’s health. Thus, almost half of those who reveal that they are or have been victims at some point in their lives (1.6 million women) currently continue to have physical or psychological consequences. Victims “have significantly worse health” than those who are not: among those who have suffered physical or sexual violence by their partner or ex-partner, the probability of having attempted suicide is multiplied by 11.
14.5%, victims of sexual violence
The Macrosurvey analyzes what happens outside the sphere of the couple or ex-partner and concludes that 14.5% of women residing in Spain who are over 16 years of age (three million) have experienced an episode of sexual violence at some point in their lives. In 7.4% of the cases, that is, half, it occurred when they were under 15 years old, the statistics reveal, which also indicates that 98.3% of the victims affirm that the aggressor was a man.
If the bond between the aggressor and victim is analyzed, it is concluded, as in previous studies, that most of the violence was perpetrated by known men, especially in the case of the “more serious” types, the survey describes. For this reason, nine out of ten respondents who have been victims of rape at some point point to someone in their environment as the aggressor: a quarter directly to a family member, while 62% point to a friend or acquaintance. 68.5% of them claim that the sexual assault occurred in a house and only 16% point to open areas such as the street or a park.
However, it is hardly reported. Only 4.9% do so. The Macrosurvey explains that, compared to 2019, this figure has decreased because the sexual violence item has explicitly included non-consensual touching of “genitals, breasts, ass or lips”, a behavior that is “almost not reported”, states the report, which divides sexual violence into: rape, attempted rape and other types of sexual violence. This methodological change also explains why the percentage of women who have suffered sexual violence has increased compared to the last Macrosurvey, which placed it at 4.6%.
Among the most frequently mentioned reasons for not reporting is, in the case of rape, the fact that she was a girl when it happened and shame, causes cited by four out of ten victims, followed by not attaching importance to what happened, fear of not being the victim again or fear of the aggressor (with percentages higher than 20%). In the case of other types of sexual assaults, the first reason for not reporting is not giving enough importance to what happened, something that almost half of the victims mention.
The survey draws a map of sexist violence in which sexual harassment also stands out, reported by almost four out of ten women (36.2%). According to the Ministry of Equality, the digital environment “has become the scene” of sexist violence, especially among youth. 12.2% of women claim that they have suffered some type of harassment through technology: 9% with sexual connotations and 8.4% without them. The youngest women are those who have suffered the most: 28% of those between 16 and 17 years old and 35% between 18 and 24 respond affirmatively.
Source: www.eldiario.es
