Patriarchal dominance and sexual rights violation in a Nigerian university
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Date
2014-06
Authors
Akinwale, A.A
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Abstract
Sexuality manifests diversely among persons and across places. It remains a misunderstood phenomenon in Nigeria where university students are sometimes compelled to have sex principally due to gender power imbalances. This situation fuels different deviant sexual behaviour such as rape, sexual assault and sexual harassment. Unfortunately, many female students suffer in resisting male dominance. Thus, this study examined patriarchal dominance and sexual rights violation in a Nigerian university. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected. The former involved 800 male and female undergraduate students randomly selected from eight hostels around the University of Ibadan, Nigeria; while the latter included 16 in-depth interviews and four focus group discussions. Respondents generally displayed high (60%) awareness of sexual rights violation but they recorded low rate (27.5%) of personal experience. The female displayed higher awareness of sexual violence (70% vs 50%). Academic performance measured by the Grade Point Average (GPA) was found to be significantly associated with knowledge of sexual violence (p<0.005). Furthermore, number of sexual partners and timing of the most recent sexual intercourse were found to be significantly connected with awareness and experience of sexual violence. Both awareness (70%) and experience (50%) of sexual violence tend to increase with the number of sexual partners. Different forms of sexual violence were mentioned but verbal assaults and sexual harassment occurred more frequently. All the respondents did not report their knowledge of sexual violence to the university authorities. Thus, empowerment of students is needed to safeguard their sexuality and career.
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Keywords
Sexuality , Gender , Violence , Sexual violence , Sexual harrassment , Career
Citation
Sokoto Journal of the Social Sciences, 4(1), 37-53