As part of the project to prevent and combat violence against women in Vukovar-Srijem County, which financially enables UN Fund to End Violence against Women We conducted a survey in Vukovar on young people's attitudes towards male-female roles and gender-based violence in order to create an educational curriculum that would challenge stereotypes and teach non-violent conflict resolution. The interviews were led by Senka Sekulić-Rebić, BaBe psychologist, Korana Radman, sociologist, and Sanja Sarnavka, project manager.
We started the research in April and continued in May – from May 2 to 5, we held 5 focus groups and conducted 10 individual semi-structured interviews with fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth grade elementary school students and high school students accommodated in the Student Home in Borovo naselje. We were received exceptionally well at both the Dragutin Tadijanović Elementary School and the Vukovar Student Home. One focus group was dedicated to talking to women victims of violence.
Ako je suditi prema razgovorima s mladima, još ćemo dugo čekati trenutak u kojem će većini biti svejedno u kojem je spolu netko rođen. Stavovi mladih otkrivaju duboko ukorijenjeno razumijevanje tradicionalnih uloga žena i muškaraca – žene su zadužene za kućanske poslove, trebaju biti prvenstveno dobre majke i domaćice, a muškarcima je neprimjereno baviti se “ženskim” poslovima. U svakoj grupi tek je najčešće jedna djevojčica ili djevojka iskazivala protest prema takvom načinu razmišljanja i rekla kako nikada neće dozvoliti da je “pripitome” jer želi studirati i raditi te biti ravnopravna u svemu. Kada je otvoreno pitanj nasilja, svi su govorili kako ga i među mladima i odraslima ima previše, ali nisu znali kako bi se ono trebalo i moglo zaustaviti.
The most interesting thing is that, after the initial silence and discomfort due to the expectation that they would express their opinions, they eventually begged us to stay and definitely come back to them – they complain about the school system in which life problems are rarely discussed, their opinions are even less often asked, and they almost never openly discuss male-female relationships.
Najtužnije je bilo slušati njihovo razmišljanje o budućnosti. Većina misli kako neće moći ostati u svom rodnom kraju jer ne vide nikakva poboljšanja. Najoštriji je bio dječak iz sedmog razreda koji je rezolutno izjavio kako neće ostati ni u Hrvatskoj a kamoli u Vukovaru jer tu za ambiciozne mlade nema života. Upitan zašto ne pokuša sam mijenjati postojeće stanje, odgovorio je:”U Hrvatskoj kada netko proba nešto zbilja mijenjati, odmah ga maknu”.
Should we think about this statement? We do, but whether those responsible for the education and upbringing of young people will – remains to be seen.
We will continue the research in June after processing the transcripts of all the interviews conducted.
