About
Biography
A native of Colombia, Greta Friedemann-Sánchez is a professor of international development in the global policy area. She is an economic and medical anthropologist interested in women's empowerment and gender equity.
Her research aims to understand how and why gender equity or inequity is generated inside of homes through the interlacing of family bargaining dynamics, policy, and cultural norms. Dr. Friedemann-Sánchez's research unravels the complex web of intrahousehold relationships through four strands of scholarship: paid labor, property ownership, domestic violence, and unpaid caregiving labor.
Professor Friedemann-Sánchez is currently engaged primarily in two research initiatives as principal investigator:
- The COLPAZ project evaluates the implementation of Colombia's 2008 intimate partner violence law, Law 1257. Despite model legislation fulfilling Colombia's UN and OAS human rights treaty obligations to prevent, sanction, and end violence against women, the law’s objectives remain unmet.
The evaluation is done from the perspective of frontline judicial service providers charged with protecting the fundamental human right of women to live free from violence. It seeks to understand the practical, legal, institutional, and cultural barriers and facilitators to the law's implementation. The project uses a rapid assessment process methodology. - IDREAM is an exploratory mixed-methods design study that seeks to understand challenges parents face while caregiving for their children who have type 1 diabetes (T1D), and how service provisioning may be enhanced to improve the financial and health outcomes of caregivers.
The case study takes place in Nagpur, India. Based on 33 in-depth interviews and a survey of 179 caregivers, IDREAM explores and characterizes the context of care; barriers and facilitators to care; the range of financial, social and instrumental resources available to families to care; and the health and financial outcomes of providing care for children with this chronic condition.
Education
Postdoctoral Fellow, Training in Health Services Research (Center for Chronic Disease Outcomes Research, Department of Veterans Affairs Health Care System, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2003–2005)
PhD in Anthropology (University of Minnesota, 2002)
MA in Public Affairs (Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota, 1999)
BA in Anthropology (Universidad de los Andes, 1990)
Recent Publications
Friedemann-Sánchez, G., & Grieve, M. (2020). Colombia’s Portal to Justice for Women Victims of Violence: The Family Commissioner Office and its Institutional Challenges. Bogotá: Taller de Edición Rocca.
This report's focus is the Office of the Family Commissioner, the public entities responsible for issuing judicial, administrative measures for the protection of victims of violence since 2000. Family Commissioners are the portal to justice for domestic violence victims, the majority of whom are women. However, Colombia's institutional design of the Office of the Family Commissioner defies logical government organization principles and separation of powers. The Office is currently located under the local executive branch of government, an illogical location for an office imparting justice. In addition to their judicial responsibilities, the range and number of duties prevent them from effectively addressing domestic violence, their primary responsibility. Contrary to logic, and based on an inverse formula, the number of legally mandated Offices decreases as population, incidence, and prevalence of domestic violence, and service needs increase. The report offers an in-depth analysis of the institutional structure and policy recommendations to improve its design and a more robust institutional response to violence victims.
Friedemann-Sánchez, Greta, and Grieve, Margaret. (2019). Comisarías de Familia y Violencia Contra Las Mujeres en Colombia: Puerta de Acceso y Retos Institucionales. Bogotá: Taller de Edición Rocca.
Este informe tiene como enfoque las Comisarías de Familia, ya que han sido desde el año 2000 los entes públicos encargados de emitir medidas administrativas judiciales de protección a las mujeres víctimas de violencia. Las Comisarías de Familia constituyen la puerta de acceso a la justicia para las mujeres víctimas de violencia intrafamiliar. Las Comisarías de Familia, ubicadas actualmente bajo la rama ejecutiva local, además de tener responsabilidades judiciales, tienen un abanico de responsabilidades que les impide ser efectivas en su responsabilidad principal: la de atender la violencia intrafamiliar.
Friedemann-Sánchez, Greta, and Margaret Grieve—The Humphrey School of Public Affairs; The Advocates for Human Rights. 2019 Relating to Access to Justice, Discriminatory Gender Stereotypes, and Violence Against Women. Republic of Colombia Stakeholder Report for the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), 72nd session (18 February-9 March 2019).
Friedemann-Sánchez, Greta, Capistrant, Benjamin D., Ron, James, Novak, Lindsey, Zuijdwijk, Caroline, Ogle, Graham D., Pendsey, Sharad. 2018. Caregiving for children with type 1 diabetes and clinical outcomes in central India: The IDREAM study. Pediatric Diabetes, 19 (3), 527–533.
Phelan, Sean; Lauren Bangerter, Michelle van Ryn, Greta Friedemann-Sánchez, Kandace Lackore, Megan Morris, Laura Meis, Agnes Jensen, Courtney H. Van Houtven, Kathleen F. Carlson, Joan M. Griffin. 2018. The Impact of Stigma on Community Reintegration of Veterans With Traumatic Brain Injury and the Well-Being of Their Caregivers. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation 99 (11), 2222–2229.
Capistrant BD, Friedemann-Sánchez G, Novak LK, Zuijdwijk C, Ogle G, Pendsey S. Mental Health and Well-Being among Type 1 Diabetes Caregivers in India: Evidence from The IDREAM Study. 2017. Diabetes Research and Clinical Practice 134: 168–17.
Ragui Assaad, Greta Friedemann-Sánchez, Deborah Levison. 2017. Effect of Domestic Violence on Children’s Human Capital in Colombia. Journal of Violence Against Women 23(12): 1484–1512.