By Loveday Penn-Kekana

Gender violence is endemic in South Africa. Studies that have been carried out estimate that one in six women are beaten by their partners and one woman is raped every 83 seconds. Due to the lack of resources, these studies were done on a relatively small scale. Results from one region have been used to estimate levels throughout the country. We don't know if levels in for example, Johannesburg, are different from levels in rural Kwazulu-Natal. We also don't know if the type and extent of violence is different. These questions need to be answered when trying to address gender violence.

The Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology (National Innovation Fund), has funded a range of research projects that will try and answer some of these questions. The Centre for Epidemiological Research in Southern Africa (CERSA), Pretoria, which is part of the Medical Research Council, has received funds to carry out a range of research projects on gender violence. These projects will try to come up with figures on gender violence, but will also ask useful questions to develop interventions to decrease levels of gender violence. To ensure that the results are as useful and relevant, CERSA has consulted with key players.

The first project is the inclusion of questions on gender violence I the Demographic Health Study. This study will entail asking at least a thousand women in each province about all aspects of their health. There will also be a Prevalence of Gender Violence Study which will involve asking 750 women, in three provinces, urban and peri-urban areas, about their experiences of gender violence.

Another study will be taking place in the Western Cape, entails the interviewing of men in their workplace about attitudes towards, and experiences of, gender violence. Other studies include, ethnographic studies looking at violence in teenage sexual relationships in Umtata and a study which looks at the sexual harassment of farm workers.

The results of these studies, except the Demographic Health Study, should be available by March 1998. The Medical Research Council will endeavor to make sure the results are as widely distributed as possible.