Sociology Colloquium, 2/3/2021
Attitudes Towards Wife Beating in Pakistan: Over-Time Comparative Trends by Gender
Fizza Raza and Dr. Heili Pals, Texas A&M University
According to the Global Gender Gap Index 2020, Pakistan ranks 151 out of 153 countries in terms of general equality. According to the Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey (PDHS) 2012-2013, 42% of women believed that it is justifiable for men to beat the wife and not much change has been since then, with the next round of data reporting the figure around 41% (PDHS 2017-2018). In this article, we attempt to study the perceptions towards wife beating in a nationally representative sample of both women(n=24,826) and men(n=6154) using data from two waves of PDHS (2012 and 2017). While women tend to show a higher tolerance towards wife beating as compared to their male counterparts, a deeper analysis of the data has led to an interesting finding. We found that the presence of a family member (husband, male and other female member of the household) is significantly related to higher tolerance towards wife beating for our female respondents, a reminder that in patriarchal societies, data related to women empowerment surveys must be approached with caution. Our results show that higher levels of education, currently employed, being a resident of urban areas or socially economically developed provinces such as Punjab and Sindh, belonging to a wealthier household and living in a household where joint decision-making is being practiced has decreased tolerance towards wife beating.
February 3, 2021
Wednesday, 12–1:30pm
Zoom session
Meeting ID: 918 1986 1899
Passcode: 119166
If you cannot join with video, you can connect to the Zoom session via phone: 1–346–248–7799