Hannah Al-GhareebStudent GH (Global Health)SHESCArizona State University 04/23/13

Do Traditionally Patriarchal Societies Increase the Prevalence of Domestic Violence?

Introduction

Existing within a world offering endless diversity, it has become evident that although evolution itself has capitalized on this universal constant, diversity has incited not only Darwinian competition but division among the human species to an unforeseen detrimental degree. The idea of competition and hostility towards opponents is not preposterous. However, the atrocities inflicted by such an advanced species of intelligence is quite an ironic phenomenon considering whether one believes in scientific or cultural evolution, the catalyst for which diverged humans from other forms was the emergence and maintenance of altruistic cooperative behaviors. The life history of humans is full of imposing intolerance, discrimination, and inferiority against tribes, race, ethnicity, and probably the longest running minority being women. As far back since human history has been recorded, it is no exaggeration that the desires, rights, and safety of women have been marginalized to accommodate those of male dominated societies. In distinguishing between these genders, male identities are characterized by physical and mental strength, voices of reason abstaining from producing unnecessary emotions, by being more efficient in executing responsibilities, have designated themselves the dominant leaders. Alternatively, their female counterparts consist of maternal, emotional, unclear thinking, vulnerable and soft. Consequently, the patriarchal society was developed into “a male-dominated power structure throughout organized society and in individual relationships”; in order to secure the prosperity of humans.

In modern times, not much has changed for most societies maintain a patriarchal structure within families. These structures assume specific roles and identities that influence and challenge power structures between couples. These challenges often pose as threats to individuals in power, and result in negative associations towards the challengers. Violence against women occurs for many known and unknown reasons, however it is peculiar how it evolves in a supposed trusted and safe bonded relationship; such as a husband and wife. The types and magnitudes of violence toward female partners vary and include mental abuse, physical, female genital mutilation, sex trafficking, early childhood arranged marriage, rape, rape as a weapon of war, practices of wife burning, dowry murders, honor killings, violence while in police custody, female infanticide, and Intimate Partner Violence that sometimes result in death.

As a consequence of attempting to maintain power in a modern world of globalization, it seems that the rising empowerment of the group traditionally inferior, poses more threat than fellow male competitors. The conceptualization of a population classified inferior from ancient times surpassing the dominant one leads to competitive hostility and infliction of such upon this

“weaker” subcategory; but why? Why is domestic violence used as a form of conflict resolution towards women across cultures, especially when studies continuously demonstrate a direct correlation between Interpersonal Partner Violence (IPV) and the increase in direct and indirect adverse health outcomes for women?

This is a massive global health concern because it results in mental and physical deterioration of the health of women involved in these relationships. Studies across cultures including the U.S., Turkey, India, Germany, and more show that survivors of IPV exhibit symptoms and conditions of clinical depression, post traumatic stress disorder, hypertension, and anxiety disorders to name a few. There has also been an increase of the transmission of HIV from unwanted intercourse which results in abrasions and bleeding. Women in IPV are 48% more at risk to contract HIV. Other physical effects have emerged such as complications with pregnancies and injuries like Traumatic Gynecologic Fistulas caused by the tearing of vaginal tissues. These negative effects have in-direct outcomes of their own within the society. Once a woman has been raped or rendered physically altered they are viewed even more inferior, undesirable, and disregarded.

The research question is as follows: Given the direct and indirect negative effects on the health of women involved in Intimate Partner Violence, why does physical IPV become so prevalent within marriages across cultures? It seems that temporary and long term situational circumstances that incite the need to fulfill conditioned emotional securities which encompass male identities, and therefore the need to dominate the power structure within their intimate relationships is the causal factor in the increase of inflicted violence on women. These causal attributes arise within traditionally patriarchal societies.

This phenomenon has occurred historically with only little improvement and is not going away on its own, and it affects the entire household, community, social construct, cultural trends, and prosperity of a country. As a consequence these factors that increase and decrease the health of women in one area of the world, affect the international community since globalization has spurred the exchange of ideas, cultural, technological, and disease trends.

Literary Review

It has been well documented that intimate partner violence towards women yields poor health outcomes in women as well as men; increasing mortality rate, effects children and extended family members who may inherit these behavioral patterns. It also spreads dysfunctional behaviors throughout the culture as incidents and attitudes towards such are observed and accepted; becoming norms in the society and eventually cultural normative customs and values. To add, these responses to marital conflict decrease the productivity of a country’s economy by the loss of female productivity and expenses of absorbing these conflicts which spill outside of the marriage. Thus, the five criteria of economy, politics, education, health, and justice are used to evaluate the quality of life of women internationally as well as the related prosperity as a consequential result.

To start, the literature describes many factors that ignite physical abuse towards women in IPV. The literature suggests that relationships with fidelity, financial issues, and other forms of

distrust or humiliation are the causes for increased IPV. In some surveys the WHO violence module was used to extract information about past and present violence “using weighted, stratified, and multistage cluster sampling”. This was aimed to ensure viability in retrieving the correct information in the Turkish study. They used “Heise’s ecological framework” to inquire about abuse in childhood and marriage; including current marital conditions. It was noted that there was a tension between traditional and modern patriarchal arrangements within the relationships. Factors like the magnitude of dominance by the man and the woman’s feelings towards it were correlated to IPV. Another study visited households within two different time frames, and deduced that husbands that became unemployed within that timeframe were “1.7 times the odds of experiencing violence compared to women whose partner remained employed (Krishnan et al., 2010)”.

Victims reported “…significant injury, including severe head trauma (some resulting in hospitalization/surgery), bite wounds, strangulation complications, and lost pregnancy. Chronic relationship stressors evident across couples included ongoing anxiety about infidelity, preoccupation with heterosexual gender roles and religious expectations, drug and alcohol use, and mental health concerns (depression, anxiety, and suicide ideation/attempts)”.

On the other hand, there has been little focus on the effects of patriarchal societies on men. One study investigated the research question of “Is patriarchy the source of men’s higher mortality?” It started from the evidence that differences in mortality rates among women and men; men being higher, were on account of differences in behavior. Since there was an absence of cross-national investigation between the mortality rates of men and patriarchal levels of societies, it was done by qualitatively researching more than a hundred countries. It was found that there was a clear association which suggested that “oppression and exploitation harm the oppressors as well as those they oppress”.

Countries lose expenses on medical accommodations for such violence and on the decreased productivity of its women. In this modern globalized era, a country’s success is becoming increasingly associated with the health and upward mobility of its women. It has even been shown that the empowerment and education of women decreases the desired number of offspring and thus poverty due to overpopulation. The main categories that demonstrate equitable rights for women; enabling them to hold positions in society independently and self assured without a male, are education, justice, politics, health, and economics. For example, a study by “Panda and Agarwal (2005) found that possession of land or property reduced the risk of violence from one’s husband. They suggest that ownership of property gives women more security because it offers protection against fluctuations in the labor market and communicates that she has options outside of marriage”. To evaluate the effects of patriarchal societies more closely, a study was used to demonstrate these five key indicators; economic, political, education, health, and justice, and deducing the ranking of the ten worst and best countries in the world for women. Each factor is scaled from 1-100 and were defined by The Daily Beast as such below.

Table 1: Factors Defined to Evaluate Study on Worst and Best Top Ten Countries by The Daily Beast

Factor Definition from The Daily BeatJustice : Laws protecting women from domestic

violence, adolescent marriage and marital rape, and also women's access to land and bank loans.

Health Includes rates of maternal death, HIV, and infant mortality, and also access to safe abortions and skilled health workers.

Education Education level, literacy, and gender parity in schools.

Economics Includes percentage of women in the labor force, gender pay gap, access to all industries, ability to climb the ladder.

Politics Share of women in government, including senior positions.

Table 2: The Ten Worst Countries for Women

Ranking

Scale Out of 100

Country Justice

Health

Education

Economics

Politics

Additional Defining Characteristics

1 0 Chad 20.7 0 0 70.9 22.2 “Women have

almost no rights here, marriages r arranged when girls are 11-12 yrs old.

2 2.0 Afghan-istan

8.4 2.0 41.1 55.3 16.6 Almost 90% women illiterate as well as 85%+ acquire no medical attention while giving birth

3 12.1 Yemen 36.2 44.4 34.1 48.8 0.0 DV is not illegal, no legal recognition of rape from husbands

4 13.6 DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo)

6.5 11.4 45.1 67.8 27.2 “Domestic Violence levels are the worst we’ve seen. More than 1,100 women are raped daily”

5 17.6 Mali 22.7 29.9 25.8 64.3 49.8 The majority of females have had exposure to genital mutilation

6 20.8 Solomon Islands

0.0 53.6 86.5 46.0 1.9 Presently no females in parliament

7 21.2 Niger 26.5 32.9 47.5 58.6 31.3 No legislation against forcing girls even at age 10 to marry

8 21.4 Pakistan 49.7 49.6 34.0 50.7 19.3 In 2011 occurred 800 honor killings

9 23.7 Ethiopia 18.6 27.2 29.9 79.7 37.4 “One of the highest rates of unsafe abortion in the world”

10 26.1 Sudan 21.1 29.4 70.6 54.5 40.8 Plans to implement female quota in government

0 2 4 6 8 10 120

102030405060708090

Fig. 2: The Ten Worst Places for Women Vs. Scale, Health, Economics, and Justice

HealthEconomicsScale Out of 100Justice

Ranking of Top Ten Worst Places

Calcu

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d Sc

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out o

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Above is figure 1 which shows the results of table 2. The ten worst locations for women in the world were evaluated and the five evaluating criteria were also ranked and shown above.

Figure 2 shows the health sufficiency in the countries which exhibit the ten greatest health disparities for women.

Figure 3 shows the worst countries for women and the success of their ecomony. There is not a direct correlative relationship however most of these countries have extremely poor rated economies. Especially number ten on the list being Sudan. However, the literature does not take into account recent developments in the separation of the north and the south; and their oil revenue. Therefore this is a limitation.

0 2 4 6 8 10 120

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Fig4: The Ten Worst Places for Women Vs. Justice Equality

Series2

The Ten Worst Ranked Places for Women

Rank

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of Ju

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Figure 4 shows the equality in justice within each of the ten worst rated places for women.

0 2 4 6 8 10 120

10

20

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Fig5: Ten Worst Countries for Women Vs. Rank-ing in Equal Politics

Series2

Ten Worst Places for Women (Raked 1-10)Rank

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in E

qual

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(Out

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Figure 5 shows the political stance and prosperity in relation to other countries of the ten worst countries for women.

Table 3: The Ten Best Countries for Women

Ranking

Overall Ranking

Country Justice

Health

Education

Economics

Politics

Additional Defining Characteristics

1 100 Iceland 100 90.5 96.7 88 92.8 Female Prime Minister is a feminist, government agency to ensure women’s rights

2 99.2 Sweden 90.8 94.8 95.5 90.3 93.1 Parents allotted 16 months leave with pay, however DV rates relatively high

3 96.6 Canada 100 92.7 92 91 66.9 Government lacks females

4 95.3 Denmark 86.1 94.9 97.6 88.5 78.4 GDP delegates 2% childcare &78% females have jobs out of their home

5 92.8 Finland 80.2 91.4 91.3 86.8 100 First government to grant women right to vote in 1906

6 91.9 Switzerland

87.9 94.4 97.3 82.6 74.6 In 1971 granted female vote

7 91.3 Norway 79.3 100 74 93.5 93.9 Outstanding healthcare for women

8 89.8 United States

82.9 92.8 97.3 83.9 68.6 Is lagging with poor reproductive healthcare, access to and family leave, but offers good education

9 88.2 Australia 80.7 93.3 93.9 85.3 65.1 Lead female prime minister but polls show gender gap

10 87.7 Nether-lands

74 95 99 83 68.4 Female pay is still lagging

Discussion/Conclusion

The tables above serve to demonstrate qualities of both the worst and best places for women’s equitable rights. It shows the five criteria for evaluating these rankings and this data can be used to show how the negative and positive treatment of women, can dramatically yield results in these aspects of a society’s well being as a whole. Further literature helps to support this notion.

In determining the root cause of domestic violence in different locations, as mentioned many factors such as infidelity, drug or alcohol abuse, and childhood abuse, however some may occur in one location and others not. There seems to be a commonality between the most reported ones; being the issues within the current spousal relationship themselves and the methods used to resolve the conflicts. The common thread in situations which result in domestic violence is the existence of male versus female power structures and the need to maintain pride through dominance; filling a socially constructed position of the head of the household and cultural definition of male identity. Therefore, relationships that are comprised of these weaknesses in trust, confusion of roles, and feelings of inability or threats to fully fulfill these gender roles constructed by patriarchal, religious, and/or cultural institutions, result in abusing the observed weaker gender to regain these lost feelings of empowerment. Hence, the factors that threaten the power structure between a couple (independent variable), yields the increase in violence upon female spouses (dependent variable). Specifically, patriarchal definitions of male identity assume dominant positions not shared in the cases of matriarchal societies, and yield violence upon female deviance resulting from challenging these male identities.

Patriarchal societies have “been described as ‘a relationship of dominance and subordinance.... sturdier than any form of segregation, and more rigorous than class stratifica-tion, more uniform, certainly more enduring’, and more simply as ‘the systematic domination of women by men and domination of men by other men’”. Marital relationships were always difficult to balance healthily on account of primitive urges and behaviors of the majority of men being more promiscuous than women, and majority of females desiring fulfillment of maternal instincts and a monogamous male counterparts who offers optimal biological and financial characteristics fit to ensure survival. Currently, all institutes of the world are selling commercialism, materialism, politics, cultural values, and male and female identities for profit. On the other side, new generaltions and technology are selling the redefining of gender identities and questioning power structures all over the world. This increases the pressures to maintain these traditional power structures which have existed for centuries. It then intensifies the tensions felt from unmanageable emotions of both genders to accommodate and adaot to these ever changing radical times. More often than not avoidance and dis-credation occurs in response to these external influences threatening to change one’s culture, power structure, and essentially, identity. Thus, exponentially increasing abuse results from this constant pull to maintain these man-made structures which serve to benefit one side more than the other. As it has been said before, it is much easier to grant someone or somewhere something, than to take something away from them.

tend to be patrilineal as well; following the lineage of the males, which places emphasis on desiring a male aire, the male position in society and therefore a sense of being irreplacable. Human

Although drug and alcohol use has been mentioned as factors to increase violence, it is not necessarily a causal variable, for the majority of people do not resort to partner violence as a response to the stimulation of consumption. Also, no studies were found to show a conditional probability with these variables. This also holds true with factors like child abuse, which has been an assumed inherent cause of wife battery. On the contrary however it was not as strong of a correlation as patriarchal societies. This can be seen evidently as adults who were abused as children do not necessarily abuse women they are with. Cultures including African American, Spanish, Asian and of Arab decedents have cultural customs of physically disciplining their progeny and the majority of these people do not resort to this method of conflict resolution. There is more evidence to suggest that resorting to violence in reestablishing power and order to achieve desired behaviors from wives, is rooted in these socially constructed ideals and the internalization of these external pressures to maintain them. This is shown within the study in Mozambique via services at the Maputo Central Hospital where married women were questioned on their husband’s levels of coercion, threats, and controlling behavior, especially among conditions of infidelity. It was noted that “controlling behaviour reflects a power structure within the relationship, and has been shown to be significantly associated with higher likelihood of use of violence [16], by men against women”. A more recent study among Ghana university students “…showed that the frequency of use of controlling behaviours and victimization/perpetration amongst men and women (e.g. control the other’s money) were similar, and that controlling behaviours were a “predictor” of IPV” (“ ). Additionally it reported that studies which investigated the relation between socio-economic status and abuse in the cases of unemployment for example were conflicting, for at times the empowered women would get abused as well. Other factors were examined in Sub-Saharan Africa such as a woman’s child hood abuse; however there has not been studies which show a positive association between child abuse and abuse experienced by husbands in adult years. The Mozambique study concluded that “the combination psychological aggression, physical assault and sexual coercion had the highest figures compared with the other combinations. The multiple regressions showed that controlling behaviours, own perpetration and co-occurring victimization were more important in “explaining” the experience of IPV than other variables (e.g. abuse as a child)”. The study which found a clear increase in mortality rates among more patriarchal societies concluded that male mortality is a “preventable social condition, which can potentially be tackled through global social policy measures”. Violence against women is a global problem that violates women’s human rights.

Limitations

There exists an obvious limitation within this topic for it is sensitive and personal for most women to speak freely about. This is the reason why there is a large population that remains unaccounted for in the statistics and studies; so many women feel they cannot and will not seek help or tell the truth about their abuse. Also the fact that this phenomenon occurs across cultures and various populations and demographics of women, the methods and sampling are not consistent with those of the natural sciences that are performed the same universally. In the western society, studies have historically been targeted towards white males; sampling a homogenous subgroup which in turn skews the inferences made about a heterogeneous

population. To add, qualitative and quantitative methods have their own advantages and disadvantages. Qualitative research acquires in depth information by using a small number of participants to sample; not accounting for large amounts of people leaving it difficult to see if the results are simply caused by the outliers of the population instead of the majority. On the other hand, qualitative studies use large amounts of people yet lack in depth details that may change the meanings of the results. However, this may be a strength within social research for to be as objective as possible with subjects usually requires different methods to extract information.