This paper studies domestic violence against women (VAW) in 33 poor countries, using household survey data from the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) and the Work, Attitudes and Spending (WAS) survey. The latter of these is a Nigerian national survey of urban and rural households. This paper used information from WAS surveys from 2003 and 2005. The article emphasises that education is not the only influence on gender-based violence (GBV) as it investigates possible links between GBV and nomadic pastoralism.
In most countries studied, education clearly reduces the risk of violence; however, education appears to have much less effect on the risk of violence in some African countries: Nigeria, Zambia, Cameroon and Liberia. For these four countries, this paper investigates whether ethnic differences could have confused the picture, concealing the beneficial effects of education.
This study confirms that, in some countries, there is a complicated link between education and GBV risk. However, the author also suggests that ethnic differences sometimes conceal the effects of education on GBV. The apparent lack of education impacts may be clarified by studying different ethnic groups separately. It is not obvious why these ethnic groups differ; however, female seclusion and nomadic cattle farming seem relevant to GBV prevalence rates varying between ethnic groups.
Key Findings:
- In four countries (Nigeria, Zambia, Cameroon and Liberia), it seems that women with 5-8 years of education are slightly more at risk of GBV than women with below 5 years of education.
- Ethnicity may be relevant to the prevalence of GBV, and there is some indication that female seclusion and nomadic cattle farming might explain differences in GBV risk between ethnic groups. It is not clear if female seclusion or pastoralism is more important; these two practices appear to be inter-related, so it is difficult to know the real cause.
- If ethnicity is taken into account, female education reduces the risk of GBV in every country.
Recommendations:
- It is not clear why education reduces the risk of GBV, so qualitative research may be appropriate to investigate this.
- UN Women should continue to campaign for every girl and woman to have access to education.
