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Asking women and men partners about violence [message #10723] Tue, 06 September 2016 10:47 Go to next message
calemann
Messages: 1
Registered: September 2016
Member
Can a woman be asked the violence prevalence module, and her male partner, be asked the question on situations when it is justified to hit a woman, following the ethical and methodological guidelines for violence research, or does this put the woman at risk?

The survey questionnaire asks women a short module on IPV prevalence (using the WHO methodological/ethical guidelines..) and to their male partners, among other topics, ONLY the question about whether they justify IPV in certain situations (classic DHS question). The trainers raised the valid concern that if violent husbands ask/insist/harass their wives about "IF and what were they asked about IPV" they might be put at risk. I suggested that they include an instruction in this module, so that the interviewers informed the women that their husbands would be asked their opinion re: tolerance to IPV and if they asked them what were they asked, they could respond that "They asked me about my opinions on child rearing, parenting practices, family relations and health issues". They think that this might put women at risk anyway if they get too pressured and become nervous and disclose. Given that this question would be the only very proxy indicator to see if the violence prevention intervention we will be implementing has any influence in men's attitudes, based on your experience, do you think there is a risk for women in doing it this way and that the suggested script won't help? If so, are there any specific measures or guidelines we should take to ensure the woman's safety?
THANKS!

Clara



Clara Alemann
Re: Asking women and men partners about violence [message #10761 is a reply to message #10723] Fri, 09 September 2016 09:06 Go to previous message
Liz-DHS
Messages: 1516
Registered: February 2013
Senior Member
Dear User,
A response from Dr. Sunita Kishor, Senior DHS Specialist:
Quote:

Good question. This is always a potential concern. While the risk is never going to be zero, I would suggest that the attitudinal questions for both women and men, but particularly men, be placed with other attitudinal questions about women's and men's roles so that they do not stand out in anyway. One thing to always remember, and something we have learned by talking to women informally, is that violent men can be violent for any reason. Women could be subjected to violence not for the questions that were asked but because the husband feels that she "wasted time" answering a survey. We must do everything we can to minimize risk, but we are unlikely to be able to eliminate it.
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