4.4 CONCLUSION
5.2.1 Research Question 1: What do female students at UKZN residences understand as intimate partner violence?
In this question the purpose was to establish the views of female residence students on what constitutes intimate partner violence. Regarding what constitutes IPV, the female students initially seemed not to have a broad understanding. They vaguely tried to explain what it was and where they had heard of it. To them, initially physical abuse and sexual abuse completed the meaning of IPV as physical. Acts such as psychological abuse, financial abuse and stalking were not looked at as forms of IPV. I felt a responsibility to explain that IPV was much broader than that. It is only after I had explained that they understood and were able to provide more information on the matter, especially about the factors leading to it and how those factors lead to it. Before I engage with these factors emanating from the female students‟ views, it is important to argue that this shallow understanding of IPV may contribute to underreporting of IPV. The prevalence of IPV, which I dealt with in the second research questions, reveals the degree and nature of IPV at the residences. It is possible that the views on the prevalence were only based on limited understandings about what constitutes IPV.
It was found that socialisation agents such as the family, friends, the university, social media, and church play a fundamental role in teaching students how to conduct themselves in society. The family and friends were the top ones while the latter reinforced their teachings. These teachings claim that women are inferior to men at home, university, and society as a whole. Women take these teachings and apply them in their lives and relationships.
The female students are taught about where they feature in the world as male and female persons. This is where the issue of gender roles comes in. African women are taught to perceive themselves as inferior to men and are encouraged to be submissive while men are
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taught to be authoritative, strong, and that they are better than women. The female students are aware of these gender roles and take on the position of being submissive to men. As discussed under the theme „Violence demonstrates love‟ in Chapter four, one effect emanating from this is accepting dominance, control and abuse in a relationship for the sake of maintaining „love‟. When asked about why women stay in abusive relationships, most of the participants cited that it was due to „love‟. Love was seen as the overarching factor for staying in an abusive relationship. In the individual interviews, most participants supported the notion of enduring partner violence while in the FGs there were participants who regarded it as uncalled for and saw a need to challenge the abuse. It was said that women had to endure physical abuse, sexual abuse and emotional abuse inflicted by a lover to prove that love existed in the relationship. The beliefs of participants about love stated above raise the question: When exactly should one leave an abusive relationship because they have made it clear that being abused is not reasonable enough. More in-depth research is needed to understand the ideology of abused women‟s passive response to IPV in their relationships.
The existence of relationships between female students and older men known as „sugar- daddies‟ or „blessers‟ was also understood to be another prevalent cause of IPV. The existence of „sugar-daddies‟ in tertiary institutions is normal. It appeared that female students avail themselves for „sugar-daddies‟ with the hope of being provided with material things such as money, clothes, alcohol, and status. Most students come from poverty stricken backgrounds and rely on Fundza Lushaka bursaries and NSFAS to get by.
Unfortunately, for others, the bursaries and loans are not sufficient. Hence, they get „sugar- daddies‟. „Sugar-daddies‟ were seen as providers of material goods and status because they work and drive expensive cars. This provides the foundation for partner abuse to thrive.
Sometimes these relationships are formed in clubs and parties where the level of alcohol is high, and it is in these very contexts where sexual violence is increased because some men see drunk girls as sexually available and provide alcohol to tame them (Flood, 2007;
Phungula, 2007). „Sugar-daddies‟ come with the tendency that they own female students because they provide them with what they want. Should the female student transgress by disobeying the „sugar-daddy‟, violence is most likely to occur. This was fully discussed under „Materialism and sugar-daddies‟ in the previous chapter.
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Alcohol was also viewed as a risk factor in causes of IPV. It was found that there is a relationship between drinking alcohol and IPV at the residences. The use of alcohol is extremely high at campus residences. Men who drink and abuse alcohol the most were found to be perpetrators of abuse because alcohol was said to increase the aggression and lessen the ability to think. Both, male and female students abuse alcohol, but males use it more and abuse their female partners in the form of shouting, shoving, knocking at rooms, hitting, swearing, and forcefully taking their money to buy more alcohol. Another finding of understanding IPV at female residences was that of cohabiting. As discussed in the previous chapter, cohabiting in heterosexual relationships is rife at residences, especially in on-campus residences. There are power dynamics that become exposed in such relationships because women take on the role of the wife, doing „wifely‟ duties of cooking, cleaning, and laundry. They also have to be submissive to the male student who takes his position as the husband. It is also in such relationships where men feel a sense of sexual entitlement because sexual intercourse in some cultures is seen as a man‟s right (WHO &
LSHTM, 2010).
Marriage is greatly valued in society, and women use cohabiting as the first stage towards hopefully reaching it. However, it was exposed that such relationships do not last and that male students are using girls to fulfil their desires while still at university. We can argue that male students taking the role of a husband may just be a strategy for them to gain what they want for a given period; should anything disturb their fun, they leave. Like, if a female student becomes pregnant, men tend to leave the relationship because they apparently do not want responsibilities, only fun times and anything to fulfil their desires.
Therefore, while in the period of being a student, marriage was perceived as only valuable to female students.
According to the participants, student partners who cohabit are more likely to fight. They fight mostly about alcohol and house duties not fulfilled by women, in most cases. Female students do not challenge their partners when they get beatings or become emotionally abused because they believe that a woman has to endure pain in a relationship for it to last.
Henceforth, they endure all negative things in the relationship. Cohabiting does not sit well with other students sharing a residence because they feel that their privacy is infringed.
Arisukwu (2013) states that such students do not care how cohabiting is perceived by
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others or by their friends. On-campus residences bear the most cohabiting students since there is little or no monitoring of residence rooms.
It was also found that victims of abuse tended to blame themselves and also endure blame from other people. Female students blamed themselves for their actions that led to being physically abused in most cases. It was their way of facing the consequences. They hold the belief that women have to tolerate abuse because they are inferior anyway which is something they learnt at an early age. This shifts the blame from the perpetrator to victim, pardoning them of any wrong-doing. When seeking help, it was reported that university staff such as the clinic and security guards did not consider students‟ problems. Gracia, Garcia, and Lila (2009, 2011) suggest that victims of partner abuse are judged by people they know such as friends, family, and neighbours; including institutions such as the media, health departments, and law enforcers. They disregard partner abuse issues especially if it is girls who seek help. Girls are therefore not confident in university services regarding their safety. The above findings represent the responses of students about their understanding and experiences in one of the campus residences of the University of KwaZulu-Natal. I will now explore the female students‟ views on the prevalence of IPV in the residences.
5.2.2 Research Question 2: What are female students at UKZN residences views on