What is the problem? Representations of men's violence against women in a Swedish context

Abuse and violence against women is not only a serious violation of human rights, but is also, according to the Swedish government, the most acute and greatest obstacle to a gender-equal society. The aim of the current study was to investigate discourses that govern social work practice in Sweden analysed discourses of violence against women in five Swedish public working guidelines using Carol Bacchi’s social constructivist analytical approach What's the Problem Represented to Be? Our findings show that violence is framed in the guidelines within a heterosexual context and is represented as an individual problem of women within close relations and families. This framing also promotes a division between violence against Swedish-born women and violence against foreign-born women. The analysis also shows that equality seems to be more about the inclusion of men rather than looking after women's situations. How violence against women is understood will affect how violence can be predicted, prevented, and treated, and thus there is a risk that these representations might affect women subjected to violence differently depending on how social workers interpret and apply these guidelines. Our findings also suggest that these representations maintain gender hierarchies and other structural and societal inequalities and ignore violence against women as a major global social problem.Los abusos y la violencia contra las mujeres constituyen una grave violación de los derechos humanos, y de acuerdo al Gobierno sueco, es el obstáculo principal en una sociedad de igualdad de género. El objetivo de este estudio fue investigar los discursos que rigen la práctica del trabajo social en Suecia, analizamos discursos de violencia contra mujeres en cinco directrices de servicio público en Suecia usando el enfoque analítico constructivista social de Bacchi (1999). Los resultados muestran que la violencia se enmarca en un contexto heterosexual e individual de mujeres en relaciones cercanas y familiares. Se verifica una diferencia entre violencia contra mujeres nacidas en Suecia y las nacidas en el extranjero. Asimismo se muestra que el foco de esa similitud es la mayor atención que se brinda a la inclusión de los hombres, sobre la situación de las mujeres. La definición de violencia contra las mujeres afecta la forma de predecir, prevenir y tratar esta, así como la interpretación e implementación de las directrices. Nuestros resultados verifican que estas representaciones reproducen inequidades estructurales y jerarquías de género ignorando la violencia contra las mujeres como un importante problema social global