Silla Kakkola, the secretary general of the Coalition of Finnish Women’s Association (Nytkis), posed for a photograph outside a granite building. Nytkis on Tuesday published a survey that found that alarmingly many Finnish men think women may deserve the violence they experience because of the way they look, dress or behave. (Handout – Nytkis)
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A NEWLY PUBLISHED SURVEY of male attitudes toward violence against women has come under criticism on social media.
YLE on Wednesday reported that some social media commentators have drawn attention to the formulation of the survey statement that seemed to garner most of the media attention, specifically to the use of the word ‘behave’.
“Women may deserve the violence they experience for dressing, behaving or looking a certain way, for example,” the statement read.
The critics highlighted the ambiguity of the word ‘behave,’ noting that it can be interpreted to encompass violent or threatening behaviour.
“The problem is that the question lumps together three things. Now we don’t know what the respondent is responding to. You should ask about one thing in one question,” Jari Pajunen, the managing director of Taloustutkimus, commented to YLE on Wednesday.
Taloustutkimus is one of the leading market research companies in Finland.
Also Juho Rahkonen from Iro Research admitted that the question had not been formulated optimally.
“It wasn’t formulated in an orthodox way, but I’d still give it my professional blessing. I’d argue that people understand what it’s getting at. Criticising it is a bit like splitting hairs,” he said to the public broadcasting company.
The survey was commissioned by the Coalition of Finnish Women’s Association (Nytkis). Silla Kakkola, the secretary general of Nytkis, said she is somewhat puzzled by the criticism but added that the statement may be revised for future iterations of the study.
“Respondents responded to the question from their own starting point. I’m a bit puzzled by the discussion stirred up by this particular question. That your behaviour may deserve violence is part of this culture of violence,” she argued to YLE.
In the survey, 21 per cent of all respondents and 25 per cent of under 35-year-old respondents estimated that women may deserve the violence they experience because of the way they look, dress or behave.
Aleksi Teivainen – HT
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Source: www.helsinkitimes.fi
