Gender Based Violence and Vulnerable Group: The Need for Women Emancipation during and after Covid-19 Pandemic

Abstract

Violence Against Women is a gender-based violence, and is a global phenomenon that cuts across all societies, boundaries of age, socio-economic status, education and geography. Yet globally we still do not know very much about its extent. Economic empowerment has long been considered a key component in structural interventions to reduce gender inequality and the experience of Gender-Based Violence (GBV) among women and girls. This paper also takes a critical survey on the recurring of gender-based violence in our society, with specific emphasis on sexual harassment in tertiary institution, a case of University of Calabar and Cross River University of Technology in Calabar, Cross River State. A descriptive method was adopted and data was collected via a survey of three hundred and fifty-seven (357) respondents using non-probabilistic sampling techniques. Data collected were analyzed using correlation and multiple regression analysis and t-tests with the aid of statistical package for social science (SPSS). The result of the study revealed a significant positive relationship between gender-based violence and vulnerable group and the need for women emancipation/empowerment. As predicted, the study also revealed that, results from recent studies have yielded inconsistent evidence on the relationship between women’s economic empowerment (WEE) interventions and the risk of Gender-based violence, possibly because increase empowerment challenges the status quo in the household, which can result in a male partner using violence to maintain his position. Reciprocally, there is evidence indicating increased empowerment reduces Gender-based violence because educational or financial empowerment offers higher status in the household, which when decreases women’s risk of experiencing violence.