Attitudes about Gender and the Family

埃及对已婚妇女的家庭暴力项目背景和重要性：对妇女的家庭暴力是一个全球性问题，对妇女和儿童的福祉有重大影响。然而，关于非西方环境中此类暴力的原因的研究还很匮乏。一些学者认为，一个人所在社区的社会经济条件可以减少或增加妇女遭受家庭暴力的风险。其他学者认为，武力是婚姻中的一种资源，当男性缺乏其他经济资源来控制他们的伴侣时，他们可能会使用武力。其他人则认为，那些因为有孩子或几乎没有其他经济选择而依赖伴侣的女性可能更能容忍伴侣的虐待。还有一些人认为，威胁男性在家庭中地位的伴侣资源的差异可能会导致男性使用武力来重新确立他们的主导地位。最后，其他人认为，跨文化研究应该考虑家庭和早期生活中鼓励或不鼓励家庭暴力的经历的地方特点。研究问题：在这个项目中，我们在社区和区域范围内测试了家庭经济地位、妇女在婚姻中的依赖或地位不一致、家庭组织和早期生活经历对埃及已婚妇女身体虐待的影响，以及她们对这种虐待的反应。对女性对1)殴打妻子，2)离婚，3)暴力作为一种男子气概，4)婚姻中的地位差异，以及5)女性工作的态度的分析将为关于家庭暴力的研究提供依据。数据和方法：这项分析利用了具有全国代表性的约6535名年龄在15-49岁的埃及已婚妇女的样本，她们提供了关于她们的社会经济状况和虐待经历的信息。对通常由男性拥有的资产的汇总衡量标准反映了家庭的经济地位。活着的儿子数量、活着的女儿数量和衡量妇女个人经济资源的指标代表了妻子对婚姻的绝对社会经济依赖。衡量每个女性相对于其丈夫的相对年龄、教育程度和职业地位的指标代表了她在婚姻中相对的社会经济依赖或地位不一致。衡量家庭组织的标准包括妇女的结婚年龄、配偶的选择、婚姻类型、与婚姻亲属的早期住所以及与血亲的联系频率。衡量早期生活经历的标准包括每个妇女的童年住所、父母的相对教育和职业地位，以及她切割女性生殖器的经历。采用了适用于每种结果的统计方法，以评估社区和家庭特征对前一年身体虐待的净影响。对来自埃及北部和南部两个地区的24名已婚妇女和24名已婚男子进行了深入访谈，以提供主要分析资料。采访集中在当地对以下问题的看法：1)配偶之间的地位差异，2)表现男子气概的方式，3)适当对待妻子和妇女，以及4)家庭暴力。社会价值和影响：该项目利用阿拉伯中东地区唯一公开、具有全国代表性的数据集，其中包括关于妇女的社会经济地位、幼儿、家庭暴力经历以及对性别和暴力的态度的数据。因此，该项目的调查结果记录了这一背景下家庭暴力的规模、家庭和社区原因以及对暴力侵害妇女行为的态度。这些发现有助于关于家庭暴力侵害妇女的多层次原因的跨文化理论的发展。研究结果还将广泛传播给社会学、妇女研究、公共卫生、护理和暴力研究领域的科学家、学者和学生。该项目还有一个培训部分，一名研究生参加了埃及的分析和实地考察，并介绍了项目结果。国际和平组织还在开罗美国大学社会研究中心介绍了埃及的调查结果，并向亚特兰大和开罗的组织提供了调查结果的简报，这些组织参与了解决妇女问题和人权问题的政策讨论和项目。调查结果与埃及政策制定者分享，他们可以提出修改家庭法的建议，也可以分享给埃及活动人士，他们可以实施公共计划，帮助家庭暴力的幸存者。

Domestic Violence Against Married Women in EgyptProject AbstractBackground and Importance: Domestic violence against women is a global problem that has major effects on the well-being of women and children. Yet, research on the causes of such violence in non-Western settings is lacking. Some scholars have argued that the socioeconomic conditions of the community in which a person lives can reduce or increase a womans risk of domestic violence. Other scholars have argued that force is a resource in unions, which men may use when they lack other economic resources to control their partners. Others have argued that women who depend on a partner because they have children or few economic alternatives may be more tolerant of partner abuse. Still others have argued that differences in the resources of partners that threaten mens standing in the household may lead men to use force to reassert their dominance. Finally, others have argued that cross-cultural studies should consider the local characteristics of family and early-life experiences that encourage or discourage domestic violence. Research Questions: In this project, we tested, in community and regional context, the effects of household economic status, womens dependency or status inconsistency in marriage, family organization, and early-life experiences on the physical abuse of married women in Egypt, and on their reactions to such abuse. Analyses of womens attitudes about 1) wife beating, 2) divorce seeking, 3) violence as a form of manliness, 4) status differences in marriage, and 5) womens work will inform findings about domestic violence. Data and Methods: The analysis makes use of a nationally representative sample of roughly 6,535 married women aged 15-49 years in Egypt who provided information about their socio-economic situation and experiences of abuse. A summary measure for assets often owned by men captures household economic status. Number of living sons, number of living daughters, and measures of a womans personal economic resources represent a wifes absolute socioeconomic dependence on marriage. Measures for the relative age, education, and occupational standing of each woman vis a vis her husband represent her relative socioeconomic dependence or status inconsistency in marriage. Measures of family organization include the womans age at marriage, say in the choice of her spouse, type of marriage, early residence with marital relatives, and frequency of contact with blood relatives. Measures of early-life experience include each womans childhood residence, the relative education and occupational standing of her parents, and her experience of female genital cutting. Statistical methods appropriate for each outcome are used to assess the net effects of community and family characteristics on physical abuse in the prior year. In-depth interviews with 24 married women and 24 married men from 2 Northern and 2 Southern Egyptian settings were conducted to inform the main analysis. Interviews focus on local opinions about 1) status differences between spouses, 2) ways of showing manliness, 3) the proper treatment of wives and women, and 4) domestic violence. Social Value and Impact: This project makes use of the only publicly available, nationally representative dataset from the Arab Middle East that includes data on womens socio-economic status, early childhood, experiences of domestic violence, and attitudes about gender and violence. Thus, the findings of this project documents the scale of domestic violence in this setting, its family and community causes, and attitudes about violence against women. Findings inform the development of cross-cultural theories about the multilevel causes of domestic violence against women. Results also will be disseminated widely to scientists, academics, and students in the fields of Sociology, Womens Studies, Public Health, Nursing, and Violence Studies. The project also had a training component, in that a graduate student participated in the analysis and the fieldwork in Egypt, and presented project findings. The PI also presented findings in Egypt at the Social Research Center, American University in Cairo and provided briefs of the findings to Atlanta- and Cairo-based organizations that participate in policy discussions and programs that address womens issues and human rights. Findings are shared with Egyptian policy-makers who can propose changes in family law and to Egyptian activists who can implement public programs to assist the survivors of domestic violence.