Men and Women’s Perceptions of Justifications of Wife Beating: Evidence from Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey 2012–13

Pakistani women are vulnerable to all kinds of violence due to the patriarchal setup of society. We examined the justification of wife beating by women and men of reproductive group that comprised of 15–49 years of age by doing secondary data analysis on nationally representative cross- sectional survey data from the Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey, 2012–13. The analysis was conducted on randomly selected 13,558 ever- married women and 3134 ever- married men representing all the four provinces of Pakistan including Gilgit Baltistan and federal capital Islamabad. The data showed that women justified wife beating more as compared to men. The findings of multivariable logistic regression depicted that women living with partners, having no access to information, lacking autonomy, and no control over income were more likely to justify wife beating while men who did not have access to information were more in favor of this acts. These findings may help in devising strategies to change the mindset regarding justification of wife beating in Pakistan.