He must give me money he mustnt beat me: violence against women in three South African provinces.

The study underscores the need to develop services to help women to develop capacity within existing services and to promote a change in societal attitudes about the status of women and gender violence.

Abstract

This paper reports the findings of the first major community-based prevalence study which examines the prevalence of physical sexual financial and emotional abuse of women in three South African provinces. Furthermore the study identifies health problems and health service use associated with abuse and describes some aspects of the economic and service implications of violence. 1306 out of 2232 household samples completed the questionnaires in Eastern Cape (EC) Mpumalanga (M) and Northern Province (NP). The main findings revealed that emotional financial and physical abuse are the common features of relationships and that many women have been raped. Many women are injured by their partners and considerable health sector resources are expended providing treatment for these injuries. Moreover physical violence often continues during pregnancy and constitutes an important cause of reproductive morbidity. In one year treatment episodes amounted to 121000 (EC) 74294 (M) and 93868 (NP) as a result of abuse by a current or former partner. In addition the labor sector was affected with 96751 (EC) 178929 (M) and 197392 (NP) days lost from employment. The study underscores the need to develop services to help women to develop capacity within existing services and to promote a change in societal attitudes about the status of women and gender violence.