“What’s next?” EXPLORING THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DURATION OF MARRIAGE AND FORMS OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE

One gap identified in Ghana’s national gender and children’s policy framework is a goal focusing on the protection of women. Using the Ghana Demographic and Health Survey, this study attempts to explore the relationship between women’s duration of marriage and forms of domestic violence experienced, grouped here into four types (emotional violence, less severe physical violence, severe physical violence and sexual violence). The results of analysis show that for all forms of violence, the proportion of women older their husbands that are experiencing violence is greater than the proportions in the other age categories. The results also showed that women that had been married for a period between five and nine years were 2.5 times as likely to experience less sever violence as women that had been married for 0 to 4 years. Again, all forms of domestic violence reach their peak between five to nine years of marriage, with SEXUAL VIOLENCE being highest at this peak. The study recommends a provision in the national gender and children policy, for a preventive measure that aims at the protection of women.
Keywords: marital duration, violence, Ghana, male supremacy