(CNN) — A third of young men in Germany find it acceptable to use violence against women, according to a new survey which has caused outrage among gender equality campaigners.
The survey was commissioned by children’s charity Plan International Germany. Its findings were published in regional newspaper Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung.
A group of 1,000 men and 1,000 women aged 18-35 from across Germany were asked to give their views on masculinity for the study, which was carried out online.
34% of men from that age bracket admitted to being violent towards their female partner in the past, to “instil respect in them.” 33% said they thought it was acceptable if their “hand slipped” occasionally during an argument with their partner.
Exploring attitudes to victim-blaming and double standards, the survey found that 50% of men said they would not want a relationship with a woman who had had many sexual partners, while 20% of the women interviewed agreed with this statement.
The survey also found that expectations within a relationship differed greatly between men and women.
Just over half of men – 52% – wanted a relationship in the form of a “breadwinner-housewife model,” where they earned most of the money for the household and childcare and household tasks were primarily the woman’ s role.
Over two-thirds of the women interviewed disagreed, wanting equal partnerships and shared decision-making.
Just under half of respondents – 48% – expressed a dislike for public displays of homosexuality, saying they felt “disturbed” by it.
A German group called the Federal Organization for Equality wrote on Twitter that the findings were “shocking.”
“According to a survey by Plan International Germany, every third young man finds violence against women ‘acceptable’. This urgently needs to change!”
Karsten Kassner from Federal Forum Men, a group which advocates for gender equality, also called for change as he said “It’s problematic that a third of the surveyed men trivialize physical violence against women.”
According to data from Germany’s Federal Criminal Police (BKA), 115,000 women in Germany were victims of partner violence in 2021.
