Gender-Based Violence

Clinic-based studies routinely report a higher prevalence of domestic violence among HIV-positive women compared to HIV-negative women. This same association is not consistently found in population-based cross-sectional studies. The usual interpretation, if an association is detected, is that domestic violence leads to an increased risk of HIV. Yet a direct effect is unlikely. If domestic violence increases the odds of a woman having HIV, it must do so indirectly through her own risk behaviors, those of her partner, or her partner’s HIV status. Population-based studies seldom explicitly articulate and model the intervening paths through which domestic violence may influence HIV status; Variation in their findings may well depend on variations in the conceptualization of violence, analytic methodologies, and included covariates. Additionally, most studies are based on women’s data with limited information on partners’ HIV status and risk behaviors. This paper clarifies the ways in which domestic violence contribute to women’s HIV status, using recent DHS surveys from five Sub-Saharan countries with data on domestic violence, HIV test results and risk factors for both partners of married/in-union matched couples and guided by a conceptual framework depicting possible pathways by which violence could indirectly effect HIV status.

Studying sexual behavior from a social prospective has important public health concern as sexual activities among females in India takes place within socially sanctioned institution of marriages. However, marriage does not inherently make the sex safe, wanted or pleasurable. This paper presents evidence on the magnitude of and factors underlying coerced sex experiences among married women from a cross sectional survey conducted by NFHS-3. It also examines the pattern across groups of different demographic and socio-economic characteristics. Logistic regression reveals that the age at marriage, level of education, caste, religion and region, are the main factors that consistently differentiate sexual behavior across social groups. A number of factors such as partner’s consumption of alcohol, standard of living of the spousal family and respondent’s current working status were also found to be correlated with unwanted sexual (coerced sex) experiences. The study will hopefully provide knowledge necessary in designing more informed interventions for the victim.

This study examines the association between child marriage and women's experience of intimate partner emotional, physical and sexual violence in the past twelve months. Data are derived from Demographic and Health Surveys conducted in 2007-2010 in Ghana, Nigeria, Malawi, and Zambia. The analysis is based on currently married women aged 20-29 years who are in their first marriage. Twenty-eight percent of respondents in Ghana, 48 percent of those in Malawi and more than 50 percent of those in Nigeria and Zambia were married before their 18th birthday. Multivariate logistic regression analyses indicate that child marriage is associated with higher odds of women experiencing sexual violence in Ghana, physical violence in Malawi, and emotional violence in Zambia. In Nigeria, the association between child marriage and emotional violence is mediated by individual- and relationship-level characteristics. In Nigeria and Zambia, first marriage at ages 15-17 is associated with higher odds of physical violence in the past 12 months than first marriage in adulthood. The findings suggest that there is a need for child marriage prevention and domestic violence prevention programs to work together to change the cycle of these forms of violence against women and the social norms that support them.

As in many Asian countries violence against women is rampant in Nepal. Several studies on women empowerment and gender-based violence have been conducted in Nepal and elsewhere, however there is a dearth of knowledge on how women empowerment is associated with Gender Based Violence (GBV) and whether the GBV is linked with health service utilization and health outcomes. Thus, the objectives of this paper are to measure the empowerment level of married women of reproductive age, to examine the relationships between women empowerment and GBV and to examine the relationship between spousal violence and health service utilization and the health outcomes. This study has used the domestic violence module of the Nepal Demographic and Health Survey (Nepal DHS) 2011 data. Out of all the women interviewed in the module, data of only those women who were currently in union (a total of 3,084 married women aged 15-49 years) are included in the analysis. A conceptual framework and a Women Empowerment Index will be developed to guide the study and to analyze the linkages. Univariate and bivariate analysis will be used to meet the study objectives. The linkage of GBV with health outcomes and Gender Empowerment Index will be the significant value of this study.
Key words: women empowerment Index, women empowerment and GBV health outcomes

La lutte contre la pratique des Mutilations Génitales Féminines (MGF)/de l’excision au Mali peine à atteindre les résultats satisfaisants à cause des survivances en rapport avec les coutumes locales ou la religion. Les MGF constituent une violation de l’intégrité corporelle et psychosexuelle des filles et sont contraires à l’égalité des sexes qui est le troisième Objectif du Millénaire pour le Développement (OMD). Au Mali, cette pratique est toujours d’actualité. Les analyses des dernières EDS (EDSM-IV, 2006) montrent ainsi que cette pratique se rencontre partout mais avec une légère prépondérance en milieu rural (urbain 81% et rural 87%).Un fait remarquable toutefois est que l’on note un début de diminution au cours des années récentes, notamment une baisse de 92% de femmes excisées en 2001 contre 85% en 2006 (EDS 2001 ; 2006), ce qui suggère un déclin remarquable parmi les adolescentes et les jeunes adultes. D’où, l’interrogation de savoir dans quelle mesure le changement intervenu dans la pratique des MGF reflète des effets de composition ou des effets de performance ? En d’autres termes, quelles sont les grandes causes dans le changement de la pratique des MGF au Mali? L'analyse explicative nous révèle que, c'est l’effet de performance de base qui explique plus le changement observé dans la pratique des MGF.

This paper maps spatial and demographic variation in reports of intimate partner violence (IPV) in Bangladesh. Data from the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) conducted in 2007 are used in this analysis. In addition to the usual demographic and health questions, the survey administered a special module on violence which included questions on women’s experience of physical and sexual violence, attitudes of acceptance of violence towards women and family history of violence. While overall reports of physical and sexual violence among women are high, our analysis is able to capture some telling patterns of demographic and spatial variation using multi-level modeling techniques. Exploring the influences of individual, spousal and community characteristics (normative attitudes, poverty and educational level) we confirm several strong patterns: reports of IPV in the past year is highest among the youngest women and declines with woman’s own age. While early marriage is not itself associated with IPV reports, large age differences between spouses is predictive of violent relationships. Women’s own education and having more education than husbands is strongly protective while poverty and women’s work is associated with reports of higher violence. Women who work and are active in non-family institutions report higher violence.

Over the past few decades Egypt has undertaken several attempts to limit and control female genital mutilation (FGM). However, these interventions have failed to curb the practice as it maintains wide popular support and is firmly embedded in local traditions and structures. This paper examines the evolution of anti-FGM attitudes among ever-married women in Egypt between 1995 and 2008, using five waves the Egypt Demographic and Health Surveys. The results show that the percentage in favor of the discontinuation of FGM rose from 13.9% in 1995 to 29.0% in 2008. The central question here is whether this trend is due the entry of younger cohorts who are more modern and more opposed to the practice, or to the spread of anti-FGM sentiment throughout multiple segments of society. In 1995 opposition to FGM was concentrated in two groups: non-circumcised women, and the more wealthy, urban highly educated women. The observed changes in attitudes towards FGM cannot be attributed to the entry of new cohorts and the expansion of the groups most likely to oppose FGM, but of a spread of anti-FGM sentiment to all walks of life, with poorly educated rural women the least likely to oppose FGM.

Using an index of agreement and disagreement between husbands and wives about who should, and who actually does make the final decision in five decision-making areas as a measure of power in marriage; this paper uses data from the Ghana Demographic and Health Survey of 2008 to investigate whether gender equitable attitudes lead to gender equitable behaviours, and whether these behaviours have an effect on domestic control and violence issues in Ghana. Preliminary findings indicate that there are marked discrepancies between husbands’ statement of who should have final say and wives account of who does have final say in all the decisions considered. Further, all but one of the decisions is strongly associated with domestic violence. Further analysis will employ various regression models to tease out the details of the relationships between decision-making in the various spheres considered and different aspects of domestic violence.

Domestic violence is a worldwide phenomenon which is experience by both men and women. Globally, concerns about domestic violence have been raised (Fischbach R, 1997), which has led to the setting of goals at international conferences to fighting for a sustainable and equitable society, free from all forms of violence and oppression.
This study looks at violence (physical, emotional and sexual) against both men and women by their intimate partners. The study used the 2008 Ghana demographic and Health survey data with 732 and 1671 ever married male and females respectively in its analysis. The relationship between background characteristics of respondents and the three forms of domestic violence was also analyzed.
The result revealed that, 33%, 21%,6% of the females has ever experienced emotional, physical and sexual violence respectively with 24% and 11% of the men respectively ever experiencing emotional and physical violence. The result also shows that, a significant relationship exist between a man’s age and physical violence (p<0.05), a man’s level of education and emotional violence. there is a significant relationship between a woman’s level of education and her experience of emotional and physical violence (p<0.05). 8% males and 18% females has ever experienced multiple violence.

Patriarchal nature of Indian society has legitimized the perpetuation of domestic violence on women since ages. Many times women have to suffer violence which may be perpetrated by their husband or family members/relatives. Using data from NFHS-3, present study examines the relationship between domestic violence and fertility behavior among currently married women in India. Using multiple linear and logistic regressions the relationship between the exposure to different forms of domestic violence and fertility behavior has been explored. Fertility behavior is measured by children ever born, ideal family size and desire for another child. The findings reveal that the experience of any violence reduces the pace of fertility transition. It indicates significantly strong positive effect of life time exposure to domestic physical, domestic sexual and any domestic violence on the children ever born. This suggests that the women who experience domestic violence are likely to produce more children. Findings highlight no significant association between life time exposure to any form of domestic violence with the ideal family size. The study highlights the critical need to address the menace of domestic violence against women that potentially stifles the contemporary fertility transition in India, particularly in the North-central India