6533b871fe1ef96bd12d0dfc

RESEARCH PRODUCT

Gender, Care, and the Normalization of Violence: Similarities between Occupational Violence and Intimate Partner Violence in Finland

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According to the statistics, violence against women is quite common in Finland, particularly in partner relationships and in care work. The present article looks at the similarities in the ways in which victims of occupational violence in care work and victims of intimate partner violence understand their experiences of violence. The commonalities among interpersonal relations are highlighted in order to offer new insights to the analysis of gender in research on occupational violence. Drawing on empirical data and research literature on the experiences of violence of Finnish women, this article suggests that minimization, naturalization and legitimization of the encountered violence is typical for women in care work as well as for quite ordinary women in their intimate relationships. The article identifies gendered ideals of caring as an area overlapping and in disjunction with violence at work and at home. These contribute to the ways in which women tend to belittle the impact of violence targeted at th...