SANTA ANA, El Salvador (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Rosa put an end to a 20-year abusive relationship in the less than two hours it took her to file for divorce, an alimony claim and a restraining order against her husband.
Such procedures usually take weeks in El Salvador. But at one of the country’s ‘Women City’ centres set up to help women break cycles of violence by making it easier for them to report abuse and get help, Rosa is already moving on with her life.
At each of El Salvador’s five Women City centres, 15 government agencies offer a range of services from reproductive and natal healthcare and breast cancer prevention to business advice, job training and bank loans – all under one roof.
“I’m grateful to get free legal advice and be treated nicely by a female police officer who’s taking me seriously,” Rosa said as she waited to see a psychologist at the Women City centre in Santa Ana, an hour’s drive from the capital San Salvador.
“I don’t have to live with the beatings anymore,” Rosa told the Thomson Reuters Foundation, declining to give her full name.
Since the first Women City opened in 2011 to promote women’s rights, their economic empowerment and access to health services, some 603,000 women have used the centres, built in and around cities with high rates of violence against women.
“Before coming to Women City, I didn’t even know I had all these rights as a woman and that free help is available. It’s been so easy doing everything all in the same place. And I can leave my son at the crèche here,” Rosa said.
Spotlight on violence against women
Until recently, violence against women in the conservative Central America nation was seen as a private matter to be dealt with behind closed doors.
But a landmark speech by former president Mauricio Funes in 2012 started to slowly change perceptions.
“Violence against women is violence against society,” said Funes, in what many El Salvadorans say was a watershed moment because it put the problem in the public domain.
As part of its response to gender-based violence, the government launched Women City, the brainchild of Vanda Pignato, El Salvador’s former first lady and Funes’ estranged wife.
“Before that speech women didn’t exist in government policies,” Pignato, now the presidential secretary for social inclusion, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation as she walked along the corridors of the Women City in Santa Ana.
“They were invisible. At Women City, women are now visible, in a place that’s just for them. When women come here they get a hug from a female official who doesn’t judge or ignore them.”
In a region known for its high levels of violence against women, Women City is seen as a model other Latin American countries could adopt. Guatemala, Colombia and Mexico have all expressed interest in the UN Women-backed initiative.
Yet getting the first Women City centre off the ground was met with resistance from the political elite, as well as the Catholic Church and evangelical groups.
“In El Salvador, everything is dominated by men,” said Brazilian-born Pignato. “Powerful and empowered women are seen as a dangerous thing for the political classes.”
Breaking cycle of violence
Like other Latin American countries, violence against women in El Salvador stems from a deeply macho culture, which results in a lack of economic independence and women being seen primarily as child bearers. El Salvadoran women have lower levels of education, higher school dropout rates and almost twice the rate of illiteracy compared to men. Around 40 percent of El Salvadorans are poor.
“It’s a problem to do with education. Women have been raised to serve men and for men to provide. So men see women as an object, just someone who serves,” Pignato said.
“While there’s sexual violence by gang members, the main enemy for women, especially young women and girls, is sexual violence that takes place in the home,” she added.
