AWARENESS BEYOND STRENGTH AS THE FOUNDATION OF WOMEN’s DEFENCE AND FREEDOM – Paola La Salvia

Introduction

When discussing self-defense, the collective imagination tends to focus on the physical dimension: combat techniques, the ability to react to an attack, readiness to strike or flee. These are useful, sometimes decisive skills that can increase one’s sense of safety and provide concrete tools in dangerous situations. However, reducing self-defense to a matter of physical strength or bodily ability risks oversimplifying a much more complex phenomenon.

The Complexity of Violence

Violence against women, in fact, rarely manifests in a sudden and isolated way. More often, it develops within relational, cultural, and social dynamics that progressively make it tolerable, if not invisible. In this sense, prevention cannot be limited to physical preparation but must include a structured set of cognitive, emotional, and material tools that enable individuals to recognize, name, and counter violence in its many forms.

Cultural Dimension and Recognition of Violence

One of the first levels of intervention is the cultural one. Understanding what violence is—both in its explicit expressions and in its more subtle forms—is a crucial step. Psychological manipulation, control, devaluation, and emotional dependency are often normalized or justified within social narratives that struggle to recognize them as problematic. Knowledge thus becomes a tool of interpretation, capable of interrupting these processes and restoring meaning to experiences that might otherwise be confused or minimized.

Self-Esteem and Subjectivity

Alongside the cultural dimension, self-esteem plays a central role. The perception of one’s own value deeply influences the ability to establish healthy relationships and to withdraw from harmful situations. A conscious subjectivity is unlikely to accept prolonged conditions of devaluation or subordination, as it recognizes respect and reciprocity as essential. In this sense, working on self-esteem does not mean promoting abstract self-confidence but building a relationship with oneself grounded in the legitimization of one’s needs and rights.

Economic Independence

Another crucial factor is economic independence. Material conditions directly affect the possibility of choice: having autonomous resources can make the difference between remaining in a violent relationship and having the concrete possibility to leave it. Conversely, economic dependency can become a tool of control and coercion, limiting access to pathways of escape and reinforcing situations of vulnerability.

Personal Boundaries

Equally fundamental is the ability to define and maintain clear personal boundaries. Saying “no,” expressing dissent, and withdrawing from unwanted requests or behaviors require a deep recognition of one’s legitimacy. However, social and educational processes often discourage these forms of self-determination, especially in women, promoting relational models based on compliance and adaptation. Reclaiming the right to limits thus becomes an essential step in building one’s own safety.

Support Networks

Within this framework, the collective dimension plays a significant role. Support networks among women—formal or informal—create spaces of sharing, recognition, and mutual support that can counteract isolation, one of the primary factors sustaining violence. The possibility of being heard and believed strengthens the capacity for action and makes otherwise silenced experiences visible.

Rights and Access to Resources

Knowledge of rights and of available local resources constitutes another crucial protective tool. Knowing whom to turn to, which paths to pursue, and what forms of protection can be activated allows a need to become a concrete request for help. Without this information, even the most serious situations risk remaining unaddressed.

Self-Listening and Emotional Education

No less important is the ability to listen to one’s internal signals. Discomfort, fear, and a sense of oppression are often early indicators of dysfunctional dynamics. However, these signals are frequently ignored or rationalized in the name of social expectations or emotional bonds. Developing authentic self-listening means attributing value to these perceptions and using them as guidance in decision-making.

Finally, emotional education represents a transversal dimension that concerns not only the prevention of violence, but the overall quality of relationships. Learning from an early age about respect, consent, emotional management, and the recognition of others as autonomous subjects contributes to building relational contexts less exposed to abusive dynamics. In this sense, prevention becomes a process involving society as a whole, not only potential victims.

Conclusions

From this perspective, self-defense emerges as a complex process that goes beyond immediate physical response and becomes rooted in systems of meaning, social structures, and individual resources. The prevention of violence cannot be reduced to a reactive response but must be understood as a process of constructing subjectivity, autonomy, and critical capacity.

Awareness, therefore, is not merely a mental state but an ongoing practice: an exercise in reading reality, recognizing power dynamics, and legitimizing one’s needs and rights. It is within this space that real change becomes possible, not only at the individual level but also collectively.

Promoting awareness ultimately means intervening in the conditions that make violence possible—and often invisible. It means opening the way to forms of freedom that go beyond mere survival, making a fully self-determined life achievable.

REFERENCES

• Bourdieu, P. (1998). Masculine Domination.
• Butler, J. (2004). Undoing Gender.
• hooks, b. (2000). Feminism is for Everybody.
• Sen, A. (1999). Development as Freedom.
• Walker, L. E. (1979). The Battered Woman.