Recent trends of Physical and Psychological Intimate Partner Violence Against Men in Canada: A Mixed Methods study

Since 1975, when Murray Straus and Richard Gelles released results from their National Family Violence Survey revealing similar rates of intimate partner violence (IPV) among male and female victims, debates on IPV have been driven by the concepts of gender symmetry (i.e. rates of IPV is similar for male and female victims) versus gender asymmetry (i.e. female victims are predominant). Debates also revolve around the use of various methods of data collection such as self-reported survey and police-reported data. Although meta-analytical studies regarding IPV (see Archer (2000), Capaldi, et. al. (2012), Desmarais, et. al. (2012), Hamel (2012) have revealed gender symmetry in IPV (excluding sexual assault cases), there has been limited or no studies that focus on IPV against men and how they cope with their abusive experiences. This study investigates recent trends in physical and psychological IPV against men by their female partners and explores strategies that male victims of IPV adopt to cope with their abusive experiences. The study adopts Marxist feminist, family conflict, and social learning perspectives to investigate and analyze the subject of IPV against men. Mixed research methods involving quantitative and qualitative approaches are adopted in the collection of the study’s data, which were analyzed using NVivo and SPSS. The General Social Survey (Victimization) data for 2014 was also analyzed for the quantitative dimension of the subject matter while 16 male victims of IPV and 6 key-informants were interviewed for the study’s qualitative dimension. Results of the data analysis revealed the prevalence and severity of various forms of IPV against men, the risk factors of IPV against men, determinants of IPV against male victims by their female partners, and the strategies through which male victims of IPV cope with their abusive experiences

Socio-demographic Predictors of Political participation among women in Nigeria: Insights from Afrobarometer 2015 Data

Despite the important role that women generally play in development processes, they are disproportionally underrepresented in politics and leadership positions compared to men, as exemplified in the case of Nigeria. Using the Afrobarometer data of 2015, this study seeks to examine the socio-economic factors that predict women’s political participation in Nigeria. The study shows that education, religion, place of residence, party affiliation, and geo-political zone predict political participation. Based on the beta values generated from the multivariate linear regression analysis, post-secondary education, South-Eastern geo-political zone, and party affiliation are the most significant predictors of women’s political participation. The study particularly points to the impact of education, and the encouragement of women to become affiliated with political parties to make more influence in the Nigerian polity

Openness of political structures and gender gaps in protest behaviour in Africa

AbstractProtest behaviour has been conceptualized as a high-risk form of political engagement, and it tends to elicit a relatively lower engagement rate than other forms of political participation. In Africa, the risky nature of protests is often complicated by the predominant socio-cultural bias and masculine political norms that hinder women’s political agency. Many of these political systems in Africa are emerging democracies, where women are likely to be marginalized in the civic and political sphere. Using the Afrobarometer data of 2014/2015, this study seeks to examine the impact of the political context on the gender gap in protest behaviour. The study finds that the gender gap in protest behaviour is lower in countries that are politically free and higher in countries with more years of military regimes. These findings offer valuable insights into the political and institutional contexts in which women’s protest behaviour is accentuated and diminished

Experience of Violence and Non-Electoral Political Participation Among Nigerians

Most studies on political participation suggest that social capital is an important factor for individuals to express their political agency. This study provides another perspective—the violence perspective. There has been a debate about the direction of the association between violence and political participation, and most of these studies have focused on electoral participation and civic engagement. This study seeks to examine how the experience of non-domestic violence (NDV) are associated with non-electoral political participation (NEP) in Nigeria. Using the seventh round of the Nigerian Afrobarometer dataset, findings from the study show that individuals who experienced NDV were more likely to be active in non-electoral political activities. The findings of this study have broader implications for the importance of the norms and values that inform engagement in the political realm, especially in developing countries