Gender violence among rural women in Viet Nam

ABSTRACT

Background: Domestic-related violence against women appears in every country, culture and socioeconomic classes. Yen Phong district of Bac Ninh province is in the economic transformation process from agricultural to industrial and service economic structure. The domestic-related violence trend is increasing, but there are no study on this situation. Objectives: The study was conducted to investigate the situation of domestic violence against women in Yen Phong district, Bac Ninh province. Subjects and method: The study used cross-sectional descriptive design. Participants were married women who were less than 50 years old. The participants were interviewed with structured questionnaires. The group involved the men who have a history of violent activities against women and the women who suffered from violence was thoroughly interviewed and discussed. Results: A total of 452 women had participated in the study. Mean age of participants was 34.6 years old (ranging from 19 to 49 years old). About half of participants have never suffered from domestic violence. The violence in the last 12 months was lower, affected to one out of every 5 women. The mental violence accounted for highest rate, followed by physical and sexual violence (29.2%, 28.3% and 10.4%, respectively). Sharing economy and household responsibility, gambling habit of husbands and talkative habit of wives were main reasons of violence. The consequences of violence were mainly related to mental and social factors. Some women suffered from mental, physical and sexual health consequences (73.2%, 20.5%, and 13.7%, respectively). Conclusion: In order to increase the awareness on domestic violence, it requires improve access to information on gender violence for both men and women.