More Filipino women justify wife beating – survey

MANILA, Philippines - A survey of more than 21,000 men and women in four provinces showed Filipino women more than men believe that wife beating is justified.

The UP Population Institute conducted the survey in four of the country’s 10 poorest provinces: Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Ifugao and Eastern Samar.

Josefina Natividad, director of the UP Population Institute, presented the study at the 12th National Convention on Statistics at the EDSA Shangri-La Hotel in Mandaluyong last Tuesday.

In concluding the study “Is Wife Beating Justifiable: A Comparison of Men and Women’s Views from Four of the Ten Poorest Provinces in the Philippines,” Natividad said there is an observed gender differential in views about physically hurting a wife. More women than men agreed that wife beating is justifiable in one of six situations enumerated in the survey.

The six given situations for wife beating were: if the wife hits the husband, if she is a nagger, if she fails to take care of the children, if she refuses to have sex with him, if she talks back at him, and if she burns the food.

Natividad said a check done on married women among the respondents showed that more of them think wife beating was justified.

“Married women were more inclined to say wife beating is justifiable,” she said.

It was learned that 36.8 percent of married women thought wife beating is justified, and 29 percent of married men agree with them.

On the other hand, 39.6 percent of unmarried women thought wife beating is justified, and 43.3 percent of unmarried men shared the same belief. 

Natividad said age also had an effect on the respondents’ attitudes about wife beating.

“Younger and unmarried men have a more accepting view of wife beating,” she said.

“Men who have a conservative attitude (those who agree that use of contraception may make a woman promiscuous) have higher odds of acceptance of wife beating.”

Natividad said education or lack of it had a big correlation to a more accepting view of wife beating.

“Having low education is associated with an accepting view of wife beating, for men and women,” she said.

Natividad said the study could not speak for all Filipino men and women since it was limited to only four provinces.

“This is not nationally represented,” she said.

The data for the study was taken from the 2010 United Nations Population Fund endline survey.

The survey covered 10,884 women aged 15 to 49 years old and 10,534 men aged 15 to 55.