Sophie M. Morse, PhD, MPP

The aim of my dissertation is to understand the implementation of policies addressing violence against women in the health system and the variation in utilization of services among survivors of intimate partner violence in Mexico. 
 
This dissertation identifies barriers to the implementation of policies addressing gender-based violence against women  (GBVAW) and the provision of women-centered care at different levels of the socio-ecological model. The socio-ecological model is widely used in research on GBVAW to identify risk factors for violence, conceptualizing violence as a multifaceted phenomenon grounded in an interplay between personal, situational and sociocultural factors (Heise, 1998). This framework proposes that violence is a result of factors operating at four levels: individual, relationship, community, and society (Heise, 1998). Heise adapted this model  in the 1990s (it was originally developed by Bronfenbrenner) to move away from theories that emphasize only individual explanations for violence (i.e. psycho-pathology or poor impulse explains abuse) or theories underscoring predominantly social/political explanations (i.e. abuse results from gender-power imbalances) (Bronfenbrenner, 1979; Heise, 1998).
 

Instead of focusing the dissertation on one level of government (national/subnational), one group (policymakers/administrators/health care workers), or one level of the health system (micro/ meso/macro), each chapter explores barriers at a different level (with the exception of the macro cultural/societal level, which is discussed throughout).