The peace and quiet of an afternoon in the small costal
village was broken by a noise from one family’s
household. People flocking into the road saw a man
running after a woman (his wife) while throwing everything
within his grasp at her, including the trash pail. One
member of the research team who was visiting a nearby
house at the time, observed an older man (the father of
the husband) trying his best to catch up and hold the
husband in order to let the wife run away to a neighbor’s
house. Some neighbors also joined in to prevent additional
blows. After it was all over, an older woman (the husband’s
mother) began sweeping up the trash and said to those
still within earshot, “I already told her that with his type of
character, she should keep silent. However, she talked
back anyway, so he beat her”
WHY THE SILENCE?
Reasons why women who
experience domestic violence
in Viet Nam do not seek
outside support
This study is a subset of a larger study that has been
conducted from 2001 to 2004 in one District at a
Central province in Viet Nam entitled
“Link between gender and sexual and
reproductive health in Vietnam ”
Funded by Rockerfeller Foundation
Organized at the field-site of Population &
Development International (PDI)
Author:
Bui Thi Thanh Mai, MD, MSc.*
Pham Vu Thien, MD, MSc.* *
Nancy Luke, Ph.D. ***
Sidney Ruth Schuler, Ph.D. **
Tran Hung Minh MD, MSc.* *
Hoang Tu Anh, MD, MSc.* *
Vu Song Ha, MD, MPH* *
*Consultation of Investment in Health Promotion (CIHP), VietNam
**Empowerment of Women Research Program, Academy for Educational
Development ((JSI-AED), US
***Population Studies and Training Center, Brown University, US
OUTLINES
Context
Study objectives and methods
Findings & discussion
Situation of domestic violence (DV)
Factors affected the DV situation
What women do when experience with DV
Why women endure & don’t seeking outside
support when experience with DC
Recommendation
CONTEXT
LEGAL FRAMEWORK FOR GENDER
EQUALITY
President Ho Chi Minh stated that “Society cannot
be totally free so long as women are not freed”.
The First constitution (1946) state “women have
equal rights with men in all aspects”
Numerous laws in support of equality between men
and women were passed.
Law on Marriage and Family
Penal Code
Governmental structures are in place to ensure that
all people’s rights, including those of women, are
protected
CONTEXT (con’t)
ACTIONS FOR GENDER EQUALITY
The Women’s Union, a mass organization, has
worked since 1930 at various levels of society to
institute change in Vietnamese women’s position.
Ratification of the International Convention on the
Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against
Women in 1982
Replacement of the National Committee Dedicated
to Women with the National Committee for
Women’s Advancement in 1993
Approval of a National Action Plan for Women’s
Advancement in 1997 and implementation of
Action plan
CONTEXT (con’t)
STUDY SITE
A district in coastal area in the Central part of Viet
Nam
There are 7 communes and 48,000 residents
Rapid development since 1994
Administration: established a town
Economic:
transition from a collective to a private economy;
expand from agriculture and fishing to tourism and trading
Change in labor division between men and women
OBJECTIVES OF STUDY
To assess the frequency of domestic
violence in the target area and factors
contribute to this situation
To investigate social barriers women face
in seeking institutional or legal support if
they experience domestic violence
To offer recommendations for intervention
programs related to domestic violence
METHODS
QUANTITATIVE
Household survey using questionnaires.
Sample size: 465 couples in which the female
partners were between 18 and 35 years of age
Sampling: randomly selected in five communes
from an official list of resident couples
Interviewers: students of University.
Supervisors: principal researchers
Data analysis: EPI INFO 6.0 was used for data entry
& SPSS 10.0 was used for data analysis
METHODS (con’t)
QUALITATIVE
In-depth interviews (IDIs):
20 couples and 16 wives from two communes, who were
selected based on a preliminary analysis of the survey
data. Each person were interviewed from 2-3 times.
Total: 64 IDIs with females & 43 IDIs males
10 IDIs with key informants
Focus group discussions (FGDs):
16 FGDs were conducted, 6 with males, 10 with females.
2 FGDs with key informants
Data analysis: transcripts of tape records and notes were
analyzed with the support of SPData software
METHODS (cont’t)
ETHICAL CONSIDERATION
Follow World Health Organization guidelines
for designing studies of gender-based
violence (WHO, 2001)
Closely followed principles of informed
consent, safety, confidentiality.
Interview all husband and wife pairs separately
by same-sex interviewers
Interviewers were carefully trained with respect
ethical issues.
SITUATION OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
DEFINITION OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
The Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against
Women (1993) defines violence against women as “any act
of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result
in, physical, sexual or mental harm or suffering to women,
including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary
deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in
private life”
The UN Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women
defines domestic violence as “violence that occurs within
the private sphere, generally between individuals who are
related through intimacy, blood or law”. Domestic violence
includes physical, psychological, or economic abuse of a
woman by her partner or ex-partner or by another person
within the home or family.
This study: Domestic violence referred to physical violence
(danh)
IN STUDY AREA
“Have you ever beat* your wife?” Yes: 50.1%
“Has your husband ever become so angry that he
beat* you?”
Yes: 36.8%
“Have you been beat* during last year?”
Yes 14.6%
*“Beating” (danh) includes:
86.4%: slapping
17.8%: punching
10%: kicking
IN OTHER AREAS
20-25% (Population & Development. Viet Nam News,
May 7, 2004)
IN THE REGION (Source: United Nations Development Fund for Womenwww.unifem-eseasia.org/resources/others/domesticviolence/PDF/Vaw%20in%20Asia.pdf)
The prevalence of physical domestic violence
in East and Southeast Asia ranges from 10% in
the Philippines to 67 % in Papua New
Guinea.
In Korea, 38-42 % of wives were physically
assaulted by their husbands during 1988-1992
In Malaysia, 39 % of women were hit by a
partner in 1989
In Thailand, 44 % of women in intimate
relationships have been battered by their
partners.
In Cambodia, 23 % of women suffered from
physical, sexual, and/or psychological violence
FACTORS RELATED TO DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
(This part use data from Nancy Luke et al.
Exploring Couple Attributes and Attitudes and Marital Violence in Vietnam)
Economic status of household
50.0%
44%
40.0%
30.0%
Wives
ever hit
26.6%
20.0%
10.0%
0.0%
High
(n=177)
Low (n=283)
(p<0.001)
Occupation status
High:
teachers
officials
Husbands: 36
Wife: 59
Low:
business
farmers
seasonal labor
fishing
Housewives
Husband:406;
Wife: 427
20.30%
High
13.90%
39.20%
Low
38.90%
Husband's
occupation
Wife's
occupation
Age difference
50%
43%
40%
40%
28%
30%
Wives
ever hit
20%
10%
0%
H<=W
(n=62)
H>W 1-3
(n=220)
H>W +4
(n=182)
(p<0.01)
Educational level
60
51.9
50
40
38.6
44.4
37.1
30
22.8
Wife
22.2
20
Husband
10
0
P rimary(n=77)
Secondary (n=264)
High school (n=123)
(p<0.001)
Education difference
60
50
50
40
34.6
30
DV
20
10
0
H<W (n=62)
H=>W (n=402)
(p<0.05)
Gender attitude index (0-6)
50
44.4
40
43.4
41.1
39.8
38.1
36
32.8
30
21.6
20
18.1
(p<0.05)
12.0
10
0
0
1
2
3
4 to 6
Husband
Wife
WHAT WOMEN DO WHEN THEY
EXPERIENCE DOMESTIC VIOLENCE?
Most of women do nothing (65%) or
solve problem by themselves (17.9%)
Seek support from family members and
friends when conflict can be solved (3.5%)
Seek legal interventions when conflict
cannot be solved in the family
WHY WOMEN ENDURE AND DON’T SEEK
OUTSIDE SUPPORT WHEN THEY
EXPERIENCE DOMESTIC VIOLENCE?
Women don’t dare to disclose their
experience with domestic violence due to
community and individual perception of
marriage and gender.
They are:
“A relationship between husband and wife
is an internal family matter”
“Closing the door to teach each other”
“If their quarrels happen inside their
house, they should solve them by
themselves because the neighbors don’t
come. If they beat each other, a neighbor
must come to intervene.” (woman, aged 27)
“Women must endure”
“It is acceptable for men to get angry”
Agreed: women 91.8%
men 67.1%
“It is acceptable for women to get angry”
Agreed: women 44.7%
men 46.6%
“I think that I must endure. If I talk back
when he is angry, he will slap, or kick or
throw away both fish and my body”
(woman, aged 32)
“Show the kind face to the family”
“It reflects badly on a woman if she talks about
her problems with people outside her family.”
Agreed:
women 53.5%
men 55.1%
“I hide, I engrave it in my memory only and
don’t talk to my parents. If it is discussed, my
husband’s face is lose and they would say that
he beats me because I am cheeky.”
(woman, aged 34)
“It is acceptable for beating wife”
“ A good husband does not feed his wife sweets. A good husband beats
his wife”. Vietnamese folk saying
Acceptable reasons
According
to men
(n=465) %
According
to woman
(n=465) %
At least one circumstance to
justify husband hitting wife
When she disobeys him
62.6%
80.4%
7.3%
6.5%
When she talks or acts unduly
and offends him or his family
35.9%
57.6%
When she has a love affair
14.2%
3.9%
“It is acceptable for beating wife” (cont’)
“Cases in which the husband is angry and gives the
wife a slap when she makes a cheeky remark to his
parents is not violence. This slap awakes the wife to
her sense of duty.” (man, aged 26)
“I told my wife that she and my children should run
away when I come home unsteady. If they talk, I will
beat them immediately”
(drunk man, aged 31)
Preservation of “the happy family” for
children
Many women endure violence because they
don’t want their children to recognize the
conflict.
“If a woman wants a divorce, they don’t think
about economic consequences or other
husbands. They only think about children
because without a father, their children will
unhappy”
(FGDs- female)
Women’s awareness of and ability to utilize
legal mechanisms
Women know little about the laws that protect
them from maltreatment.
The current social norms do not support a woman
who may want to take her husband to court
“A woman should not take her husband to court under any
circumstance, even in the case of bleeding. If she takes him
to court, she will be more shameful because her husband
treats her disrespectfully because she is not good person.
Anyway, people in the community would say it is too small
of a matter to bring to the court. I saw many women
endure being beaten by husbands. They don’t raise the
issue because of shame.”
(women, aged 23)
Women’s awareness of and ability to utilize
legal mechanisms (cont’)
There is a difference in the use of terms
“domestic violence” and understanding
by community people and the media of
this term.
“Sometimes, we (the husbands) slap our wives
with our hands. It hurts but it is not violence.
Violence is kicking or using a stick or cane to
beat her.” (man aged 30)
CONCLUSION
The community’s and women’s perceptions of
domestic violence are the main reasons why
women do not seek outside support. These
perceptions include:
The relationship between husband and wife is an
internal family matter
Show the kind face to the family
Women should endure domestic violence
It is acceptable to beat a wife
Attitudes do not support women to disclose domestic
violence issues
Women’s awareness of the law
RECOMMENDATION
Domestic violence prevention and
intervention programs should take into
account the barriers that prohibit women
from seeking outside support to achieve
greater impact.
For example, programs should not only target
women, but also men, older people, and young
people. Content of the programs should also
condemn the violence acts against women.
Education for improving gender attitude for
both men and women are important
RECOMMENDATION (Cont’)
Legal institutions should establish ways
or programs to increase the accessibility
of women to legal institutions in order to
provide the greater protection for them.
The program should not only focus on
changing laws to protect women, but also
on dissemination of laws to wider a
population at the grassroots level.
All people in the Community
Family members
Gender
equality
Culture
Law &
Policies
Marriage
Wife
Husband
Domestic
Violence
Economic
Education
Health
More information about this study could be found at websites:
http://apha.confex.com/apha/132am/techprogram/paper_78881.htm
http://apha.confex.com/apha/132am/techprogram/paper_90497.htm
http://www.pstc.brown.edu/fac_core/lukevietnam.pdf
http://paa2004.princeton.edu/download.asp?submissionId=41206