“Em casa foi pior”: experiências e narrativas de mulheres vítimas de violência durante a Pandemia de Covid-19 em Imperatriz-MA

Abstract

This research intends to understand the experiences of women victims of domestic violence during the period of social distancing resulting from the confrontation of the COVID-19 Pandemic in the city of Imperatriz, Maranhão, Brazil. In this perspective, we intend to explore and analyze, from their narratives, their perceptions about the violence suffered in the period and the coping strategies used during the pandemic period, marked by social isolation. The research was developed through in-depth interviews with women indicated by the Reference Center for Assistance to Women (CRAM) and contacts made by the researcher from her insertion in the field. In the process of building an understanding of the complexity of violence perpetrated against women, I bring the theoretical contributions of Butler (2018), Fraser (2002), Hooks (2018; 2019), Hollanda (2019), Lugones (2014) and, among other authors, Segato (2006). The analysis will be based on an intersectional perspective (Collins, 2021) and on the reflections that guide feminist epistemology (Collins; 2019), which mobilizes the lived experience and its meanings, as well as considering the enunciative places for the understanding of social phenomena. For an analysis of the Brazilian context, authors such as Blay (2014), Carneiro (2003; 2011), Gonzalez (2020) and Saffioti (2015) were mobilized. Under this lens, we privilege the contexts in which violence takes place so that we can understand them, as well as their effects, based on the experiences and narratives of these women. The research indicates that the Pandemic has strained the domestic space, asserting violence and pre-existing social inequalities, making access to institutional outlets difficult, while underlining the importance of transversality in the formulation and execution of public policies during and after the pandemic.