ASU Research E-Magazine: Still Struggling to Overthrow Gender Violence

Being a research scientist does not keep Nancy Felipe Russo from feeling empathy for her subjects. But it is her keen objectivity that makes people sit up and listen.

While on staff at the American Psychological Association, Russo was successful on several fronts. She helped persuade the National Institute of Mental Health to establish a women’s mental health research agenda, and got them to recognize rape and other forms of violence against women as a separate mental health issue in that agenda.

She was the first to link the expression of mental disorders to the interactions between gender, ethnicity, and marital status. Her pioneering work on Hispanic women’s mental health has been the foundation of countless other developments.

At ASU, Russo continues her work on gender and violence against women. She has found that women’s mental health is closely tied to their experiences with family violence, sexuality and reproduction, and their levels of education and poverty.

“Many women experience terrible violence in the forms of sexual abuse, rape and battering, among others. People who don’t experience violence find it very hard to understand,” she says. “But it is very pervasive and has incredibly broad impact on a woman’s physical and mental health, on her social relationships, and on society.

“We have yet to appreciate fully the impact of physical and sexual violence on women and children,” Russo says. “For instance, research has shown that a history of physical and sexual abuse in the clients of drug treatment centers is linked to a poorer response to treatment. Health professionals in general have been poorly trained to identify and treat victims of violence. This must change.”

Russo also studies factors that affect women’s ability to plan and control their pregnancies. Rape and sexual coercion are an important part of that picture, she says.

A woman’s response to rape depends on the social consequences of the act within her family and her culture. Most research on rape has been conducted from the more individualistic Anglo perspective, focusing on the physical and psychological impact of the experience on individual women.

Russo’s recent research is being conducted with Luciana Ramos, an ASU postdoctoral student from Mexico. Together, Russo and Ramos explore the impact of rape on the family and social lives of women, particularly Mexican rape victims.

The Mexican culture values the family. Because part of the woman’s role in the family is to be concerned with the feelings of others, a more intense “silencing” occurs that can interfere with the woman’s ability to express her feelings and get help.

A Mexican husband’s role includes the expectation that he will be a family protector. The woman may avoid talking about her feelings, lest she make him feel he has failed in this role. She may not talk to her mother, because a daughter’s role is to make her mother happy, not sad.

“Being able to talk to people who are supportive is a very important part of recovery from a traumatic life experience. But because of gender role norms in this collectivist family unit, there’s a silencing,” Russo says.

“When working with people who counsel Latinas, such as healthcare workers, priests, or educators, we have to train them to be more constructive and culturally appropriate in their responses, and to engage the families.

“The women in our study were so glad to finally have someone to talk with about what had happened,” she continues. “Their sense of relief was amazing. The more we understand of rape and its effects, the more we realize the global health burden it presents. We also begin to appreciate society’s loss regarding these women’s ability to function in their families and in their communities.”—Sarah Auffret