Justification of Wife Beating in Rural Bangladesh: A Qualitative Analysis of Gender Differences in Responses to Survey Questions

• Type of Material: Article
• Authors: Sidney Ruth Schuler, AED; Kathryn Yount, Emory University; Rachel Lenzi, AED
• Language: English
• Date: 2012-10
• Publisher: SAGE Publications (UK and US)
• Publication Version: Author Accepted Manuscript (After Peer Review)
• Copyright Statement: © The Author(s) 2012
• Final Published Version (URL): http://vaw.sagepub.com/content/18/10/1177.long
• Title of Journal or Parent Work: Violence Against Women
• ISSN: 1077-8012
• Volume: 18
• Issue: 10
• Start Page: 1177
• End Page: 1191
• Grant/Funding Information: The authors are grateful to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for supporting this research under grant # 1R21HD058173 – 01/02.
• Keywords: spousal violence; attitudes toward wife beating; Bangladesh; gender attitudes; gender differences; violence against women; partner violence; research methods
• Research Categories: Women's Studies; Gender Studies; Sociology, Individual and Family Studies

Abstract

Understanding attitudes about intimate partner violence (IPV) in cultural context is important for developing interventions to reduce IPV and its effects. This paper presents qualitative findings from research conducted in rural Bangladesh to understand men’s and women’s responses to attitudinal questions about IPV. Both men and women often responded as if the questions were about their personal behavior. A few women said that their opinion did not matter. Women’s responses were more sensitive than men's to contextual nuances in the questions, and men more often than women described their own attitudes as consistent with community norms.