Socioeconomic status can be defined as a social and economic position influenced by different variables such as educational level and occupation (prestige), age, ethnicity, nationality, and sex. Socioeconomic status encompasses income, educational attainment, financial security, and social class. The current South African social and economic conditions, including the impact of the global financial crisis, make it difficult for many men to achieve ‘complete’ masculinity, such as securing jobs, marrying, fathering children or establishing their households. Unemployment in South Africa is high. Many young women do not work, and some depend wholly on partners for survival. Women report that being beaten by their husbands or boyfriends is justified if they provide food or give them money. Furthermore, research studies found that men with poorer wealth status and lower levels of education were more likely to justify domestic violence than those with the highest socioeconomic position. Women with lower socioeconomic status have a more favourable attitude towards justifying domestic violence than those with higher socioeconomic status. A possible explanation could be that people in the lowest socioeconomic position are uneducated, living in poverty, might have witnessed violence in their childhood and may hold negative cultural beliefs and had fewer opportunities to learn about rights to safety and global norms about gender equity, thereby being more likely to accept and justify domestic violence.
Geographical location means the population is separated by physical distance. Indigenous and non-indigenous women’s perception of seeking help about interpersonal violence and abuse in South Africa is influenced by their geographical and social location. Most women in South Africa justify domestic violence due to communication barriers, lack of knowledge about their rights, and place in rural areas. Research studies propose that women residing in remote regions of South Africa often experience higher rates of physical abuse because rural women tend to believe in cultural norms that oppress them. In South Africa, traditional gender roles of man as breadwinner and woman as homemaker can be evident in rural areas, which enforces men's power and control over women’s lives, increasing men’s ability to abuse women and justify their behaviour. Women in rural areas are more likely to depend on their partners, and men tend to use that to control them and justify violence, than women in urban areas.
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November 2023 | Collective Action Magazine
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