EXPERIENCES OF GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE AMONG FEMALE STAFF AND STUDENTS OF A UNIVERSITY IN SOUTHWESTERN NIGERIA
Aim: The study examined the experience of gender-based violence (GBV) among female staff and students of a tertiary educational institution Southwestern Nigeria.
Design: This descriptive study adopted multistage sampling technique to recruit staff and students into the study. In all 825 staff and students participated in the study. Structured questionnaire which validity and reliability had been previously ascertained was the instrument used for data collection. Informed consent gained from all participant. Descriptive statistics was used for data analyses.
Results: The mean age for students was 20.02±3.33 while that of non-academic and academic staff were 39.25±10.69 and 31.60±5.62 respectively. One third of the participants had experienced one form of gender-based violence or the other before. These ranges from been dispossessed of a property (10.9%); been forced to have sexual intercourse by a man against their wish (7.8%); 4.4% had been forced to have sexual intercourse by their boyfriend/fiancé and 26.2% forced to have sexual intercourse by their husband. Unwanted sexual advances have been made towards 10.5% of the participants in the past. In all, 29.2 % of the students has been violated one way on the other in their life while 7.6% are currently been violated as against 39.1% of non-academic staff that have been violated in the past.
Conclusion: Experience of GBV among female staff and student is high; effort should be geared towards reversing the ugly trend to avert numerous consequences of GBV.