Some Insights about Gender-Based Violence in ...

The article draws on a specific slice of data about gender-based violence from a recent Quality of Life (QoL) survey conducted amongst 16,729 respondents in Gauteng. While gender-based violence comes in multiple forms, the focus of the survey was on spousal or partner violence. The survey posed a provocative statement to respondents about the circumstances under which a man is justified in hitting or beating his wife/partner, i.e. if she goes out without telling him; if she doesn’t look after the children; if she argues with him; if she refuses to have sex with him; if she burns the food; and if she is unfaithful. This article explores the extent to which particular attributes of respondents (sex, race, income, education, participation of men/women; as well as participation in civil society organisations) may account for views that spouse/partner beating or hitting is justified. One finding of interest was that the gender-based violence question ‘if she is unfaithful’ received the strongest response across all the socio-economic characteristics that were evaluated.