Women's Narratives of Gender-Based Violence: Using "Discourse of the Collective Subject" as a Qualitative Data Analysis Technique

Leides Barroso Azevedo Moura, Universidade de Brasília

Gender-based violence against women is a profound human rights violation and a challenging topic across the globe. The use of statistical analysis procedures to measure the magnitude of the phenomenon - prevalence, risks and correlates – is an important avenue to unveil the dimensions of the problem. However, additional techniques should be used to demonstrate the intensity of this type of abuse. This cross-sectional study, conducted in a metropolitan area of Brazil’s capital, interviewed 278 women aged between 15-49 years with a questionnaire developed by World Health Organization. At the end of the interview, 195 women depicted their personal narratives of violence. This paper presents the results of these narratives using the “Discourse of the Collective Subject”, a qualitative technique with roots in the Theory of Social Representation. The findings highlight the individual and collective thought and a stratum of the social representation of interpersonal violence experienced by the survivors.