Shocking Revelation: Wife Beating Acceptance Varies by Gender in 30 Sub-Saharan African Countries!

Characteristics of the study population.

Figure 1 shows the acceptance of wife beating by both women and men. There are three notable points. First, women have a higher acceptance rate for beatings from their wives than men in all categories. Second, the highest form of justification for wife beating is when a woman neglects her children, but it is approximately twice as justifiable for women (32.2%) than for men (15.9%). ). In third place, the least acceptance of beating the wife is when she burns the food and the acceptance of women is three times higher (16%) than that of men (5.3%).

Figure 2 shows acceptance of wife beating by country. This result shows that the women in the sample tend to accept that beating their wives is justified compared to the men who perpetrate this violence. We also note that the acceptance of wife beating differs by country. For the female sample, Mali, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Guinea had the highest acceptance rates (80.6%, 78.4%, 77.1%, and 70.3%, respectively). Only women in South Africa (4.9%) had an acceptance rate below 10%. For the male sample, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (54.7%) had an acceptance rate above 50%. Unlike the female sample, three countries in the male sample had acceptance rates below 10% (South Africa, Comoros and Malawi).

Below we present the MCA estimates. The total principal inertia is approximately 0.05 for the female sample and 0.06 for the male sample. The first two dimensions explain around 70% and 56% of the total variation in the data for the sample of women and men, respectively. To be concise, table 1 shows the mass, distance, inertia and coordinates (dim1 and dim2) of the variables used in the analysis. The statistics of interest are the inertia and coordinate points. There are notable key points. First, the coordinate points in the first dimension are spread out for wife-beating acceptance, television viewing frequency, newspaper reading frequency, radio listening frequency, and respondents’ income decision. . This means that the answers to these questions by women (men) were different. For example, women who accept wife beatings had a negative coordinate compared to the positive coordinate of women who do not accept wife beatings, women with higher education had a positive coordinate versus the negative coordinate of those without education. Second, we observe that the responses in dimension two are scattered around the zero coordinate. This means that the answers were similar in this dimension. Third, the response to the gender of the head of the household, age of the woman, employment status, type of marriage, extramarital relationship, purchase decision, and health decision are located at the center of the zero coordinates in both dimensions, which means that there were no variations in the responses. given by women to this set of questions. A similar pattern is observed in the sample of men, such as the gender of the head of the household, the age of the man, the extramarital relationship and the type of place of residence. Fourth, the total inertia of each category of variables is similar for both the sample of women and the sample of men. Therefore, the variables have a similar general pattern in the data.

Differences in acceptance of wife beating between women and men

Table 2 presents the summary of the explanatory variables (in proportions) according to the acceptance of wife beating and tests whether the differences are significant. Among women whose spouses are heads of household, the acceptance of beating their wife is higher (0.85), comparable to that of women who do not accept it (0.83). This is comparable to the male sample, where male-headed households accept their wives being beaten than those who do not. Thus, other things being equal, women’s acceptance of wife-beating is higher in male-headed households than in female-headed households. We observe that younger women (between 15 and 24 years old) accept their wives beating and this is equivalent to men in the same category justifying beating their wives. Women in the 25-34 age group have a lower acceptance of beating their wives (0.40). Conversely, men within the same group are more accepting of wife beating. On average, acceptance of wife-beating decreases with age for both women and men. We observe that the educational level influences the acceptance of wife beatings. Specifically, the acceptance of wife beating is higher without education and with primary education for both women and men. On the contrary, secondary and higher education levels have a lower acceptance of wife beating for both women and men.

On average, acceptance of wife-beating is higher in polygamous marriages and men with extramarital sexual partners justify wife-beating at a higher rate with respect to employment and gender roles, we find that if men do major household purchases, the difference (those who don’t take versus those who take wife beatings) is about 12% higher, but for women it’s about 0.4%. Conversely, if the roles are shared by both the woman and the partner, the difference in acceptance of wife-beating is approximately 13% less. We observe that if women have more say in their health decisions, the acceptance of wife-beating is lower, but for men, the acceptance of wife-beating is higher. However, if the health care decision is made by both the woman and the man, the acceptance of wife beating is lower. The difference in acceptance of wife-beating is about 1% less if women typically decide how to spend their earnings, but for men it is about 11% greater. Exposure to the media (television, newspapers, and radio) reduces acceptance of wife beating for both women and men. We found that belonging to a poor household is associated with greater acceptance of wife beating compared to wealthy households. Other things being equal, women in rural areas are more accepting of wife beating, for both men and women.

Covariates of acceptance of intimate partner violence for women and men

Table 3 presents the result of the logistic regression of the acceptance by women and men of beating their wives. An important question we answered here is whether the acceptance of wife-beating varies significantly between women and men. We find that, other things being equal, women’s acceptance of wife-beating is higher in male-headed households than in female-headed households, and the result is statistically significant at 1%. This result is also valid for the sample of men with a significance of 5%. Acceptance of wife-beating increases among young women (ages 15-24) compared to women ages 25-34. As age exceeds 35, acceptance of wife beating decreases, and this is also consistent with men. Women without education were 3.1 times more likely to accept beatings from their wives than women with higher education.

However, for men with no education, the odds were 2.3 times higher. Women with primary and secondary education were 2.8 and 2.1 times more likely to accept beatings from their wives. Men with primary and secondary education were 2.1 and 1.7 times more likely to accept beatings from their wives. This result suggests that, given the same level of education, the justification for wife beating is greater for women than for men. Being employed decreases the chances of accepting wife beating for women and is negligible for men. We found that women in polygamous marriages were 1.2 times more likely to accept wife beatings than women in monogamous marriages, which is comparable to men with multiple wives (1.2 times). Women who had extramarital affairs were 1.2 times more likely to accept wife beatings. By contrast, men who had extramarital affairs were 1.5 times more likely to justify beating their wives. With reference to employment and gender roles, we find that when women decide major household purchases alone, the justification for wife-beating is greater compared to when the husband makes the decision alone. This also applies when both the woman and the couple decide together on major household purchases.

With respect to the sample of men, we observe that the acceptance of wife-beating is even higher when the man decides on important household purchases and when the man makes the decision with his wife. We found that when the wife makes health care decisions with the husband, the acceptance of the wife’s hitting is higher compared to when the husband makes the decision alone. For men, acceptance of wife-beating is higher when the man makes the health decision alone compared to when the wife makes the health decision alone for the husband. This finding is also true when the wife decides how to spend her earnings alone and when her spending decision is made with her husband. Women who watched television frequently and read newspapers almost every day were less likely to accept their wives being beaten than women who did not. This result applies to men who read the newspaper almost daily. Again, we found that belonging to households with less family wealth is associated with higher odds of accepting wife beating for both women and men. For example, women and men in the poorest and poorest wealth quintiles, respectively, were 2.2 times and 1.9 times more likely to accept wife beatings compared to those in the richest wealth quintile. Finally, we found that living in a rural area is associated with higher odds of accepting wife-beating in rural areas, and this result also applies to men.