Percepción de estudiantes universitarios sobre la violencia de género en las redes sociales

Gender violence, which affects both men and women has acquired many ways, with symbolic violence being one of the most significant but the least addressed in studies in Ecuador. On the other hand, social networks are increasingly present in people's lives and it is a space where gender violence can exist. The objective of this research is to describe the university students’ perception about gender violence in social networks. Therefore, a qualitative approach was used with an exploratory study and a cross-sectional design in which a semi-structured interview was applied to nine students belonging to the Female Associations of the University of Cuenca. The results of the investigation showed that social networks are perceived to have contents that reflect an asymmetrical position in how men and women are represented, concluding that, social networks have contents that reinforce gender roles and stereotypes explicitly and implicitly. Also finding that symbolic violence is generally accepted and shared because its content is perceived as fun, harmless and associated with humor