Hidden Norms: Unpacking Youth Attitudes Towards Violence Against Women in Africa

Bamidele Ola, University of Toronto

Knowing that normative acceptance of gender-based violence (GBV) for certain reasons is one of its strongest predictors and that today’s youths are tomorrow’s adults, we examined attitudes regarding the acceptability of GBV, precisely wife-beating, among youths aged 15-24 years old across 14 Sub-Saharan African countries between 2015 and 2021. Data came from each country's most recent Demographic and Health Surveys, involving 84,515 youths (29,128 males, 55,387 females). Analyses involved complementary models including logistic regression analyses following competing sociological theories. The findings reveal a troubling prevalence of justification for wife-beating, with over half of respondents in countries such as Mali (65%), Guinea (65%), Tanzania (57%), and Burundi (57%) endorsing this behavior for at least one reason. On average, the females were significantly more likely to be tolerant of wife-beating, reflecting the social learning effects of patriarchal gendered socialization. In both sexes, social disadvantages including low education, poverty, and rural residence were mostly predictive of wife-beating tolerance. Given that the current youths are potentially Africa’s future adults, national, regional (e.g., the African Union), and international organizations (e.g., the United Nations) need to pay more attention by promoting more substantial educational and gender equality initiatives, especially among African youths.

Keywords: Gender Dynamics, Families, Unions and Households, Children, Adolescents, and Youth, Population and Development

See paper.