Assessing the job preferences of public health specialist doctors: a discrete choice experiment.

According to a report by the World Health Organization (WHO), violence against women is not a new phenomenon, nor are the consequences for their physical, mental, and reproductive health. However, the growing recognition that these acts violate women’s and girls’ rights, limiting their participation in society and damaging their health and well-being, is a more recent development. This WHO report defines ‘violence against women’ as encompassing various forms of violence, such as intimate partner violence, rape, sexual assault, and other forms of sexual violence perpetrated by individuals other than partners. It also covers female genital mutilation, honor killings, and the trafficking of women. Brazil has implemented various initiatives to combat violence against women. In 2006, Law 11.340/2006 was introduced, also known as the Maria da Penha Law, recognizing gender-based violence as a human rights violation rooted in inequality. Prior to this law, situations of violence against women were, in most cases, considered crimes of lesser offensive potential. The penalties for these crimes were often symbolic, such as the distribution of basic food baskets or community labor, which contributed to a feeling of impunity. In 2015, the Brazilian government formally recognized ‘feminicide’ as a specific and aggravated form of homicide by including this term in Law 13.104/2015 in the penal code, thus categorizing it as a heinous crime. Despite legislative advances, Brazil remains one of the most violent countries for women. A study using data from the 2019 National Health Survey showed that 19.38% of Brazilian women reported experiencing violence. Psychological violence was the most common subtype, both in isolation and in conjunction with other subtypes. Furthermore, the Global Burden of Disease Study on interpersonal violence against women showed that Brazil’s homicide rates among women aged 15 to 49 remained consistently high between 1990 and 2019, indicating an inability of conservative Brazilian society to protect women.