Socio-demographic factors associated with men’s attitudes toward wife beating in Ethiopia

Abstract

Violence against women, especially intimate physical violence, is widely recognized as a public health and a human rights issue. However, most studies on this subject have focused on women’s reports. This chapter examines men’s attitudes toward wife beating using the 2011 Ethiopia Demographic and Health Survey, and compares never-married and currently married men’s responses to a five-scenario question for which men believe that wife beating would be justified. The results from bivariate analysis show that married men were more likely than never-married men to agree with the statements that wife beating is justified if the “wife goes out without telling her husband,” “neglects the children,” “argues with husband,” “refuses to have sex with the husband,” and “burns food.” However, these differences were statistically significant in logistic regression models only for refusal to have sex with the husband and burning food, for which married men appeared less likely to agree with wife beating than never-married men. Important regional differences are found with residents of Addis Ababa being the least likely to agree with wife beating followed by those in the Oromia region, whereas Somali and S.N.N.P. residents were significantly more likely to agree with wife beating statements. The effects of other socio-demographic variables are also discussed, including the policy implications and predictions for men’s attitudinal change in Ethiopia.