Teoretyczne założenia koncepcji gender based violence w świetle danych empirycznych

The article is a contribution to the discussion on the possibility of empirical verification of the theory related to the gender sources of violence against women (gender-based violence, GBV). For this purpose the data on the implementation of gender equality in individual EU states (gender equality index) have been compared with the data on violence against women as reported by the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights. In both cases the data were collected in 2012. The first part of the article discusses the phenomenon of violence against women in the context of the GBV theory, which was manifested in the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence. The authors present the GBV concept adopted in the Convention and evaluate the theory in the light of indicators set in order to empirically grasp and determine the social situation in the scope of implementing gender equality. They refer to the concept of the so-called Nordic paradox formulated in the scientific literature with relation to long-standing high level of violence in the countries leading in gender equality implementation. The article also contains information on the situation of women in Sweden and Denmark, as well as references to risk factors traditionally pinpointed as the foundations of violence against women, abstracting from the GBV theory.