A study of qualitative approach, carried out with eleven women in a marital violence situation. Empirical data were produced from workshops, focusing on the understanding of violence experience through the women´s speech. In order to compose analytic categories we used the technique of content´s thematic analysis. The analysis was done based on constructs of gender categories present in the daily life of those women. Results showed that marital violence represents to the women fear and imprisonment and that since within a marital status the woman is more susceptible to undergo unfair relations of power with male dominance and legitimation of violence. In the women´s speech became evident behaviors and attributes that support the feminine condition of subjection to the spouse and to violence.
Nursing; Gender and health; Women's health; Violence against women