Violence against women in France: the context, findings and impact of the Enveff survey?

Abstract

The Enveff survey, commissioned by the Service des Droits de femmes in 1997, and which was undertaken by the French State Secretary of Women’s Rights, is the first national survey to be carried out on this subject in France. The primary aim of the Enveff survey was to gauge the frequency of the different types of interpersonal violence directed against adult women in the different areas of their lives (couple, family, work, public places). All kinds of violence – verbal, psychological, physical and sexual – were taken into account, regardless of the perpetrator. Whatever the type of violence reported, in the three domains (public space, work, home), the youngest women – between 20 and 24 years old – claimed to have suffered more violence than their elders. It is behind the closed doors of a couple’s relationship that most physical violence is perpetrated.