Balancing the unbalanced: Changing gender roles among immigrant Latinos and their effect on gender based violence

Project VOCES is a gender based etiologic study of Latinos in a geographic community. It is without question that youth and adult gender based violence (GBV) in many forms pose formidable threats to the community. Gender roles are social constructs that play a role in the balance/unbalance of genders in a community and affect the prevalence of GBV. Methods: The first phase of this multiphase project utilized qualitative methods (32 key informant interviews and 4 focus groups) with youth boys/girls and adult men/women to ascertain the relative influence of home country and present community gender social norms on the forms and prevalence of GBV. Text were transcribed verbatim and thematically coded by three coders. Results. The analysis of text from the males and females interviewed point to a relative ‘balance creating unbalance' in gender roles in the present community; roles that were relatively ‘unbalanced' in the home country. Both genders talked extensively about the distinct roles played by males and females in the home country (males being the provider, females being the family caretakers). Comparatively this ‘unbalanced balance' was not found to be the same in the present community whereby females are finding it easier to attain legal gainful employment and have become the ‘provider' thereby taking over the role previously held by men. Discussion: This new gender role balance has shaped a stressful environment and the forms and prevalence of GBV have become entwined with other stressors including economics, drugs/alcohol, and social injustice in the form of discrimination.