Understanding Eritreans' Attitude towards Women in Relation to their Culture

Abstract

The investigation aims at exploring attitude towards women in the war-torn developing country – Eritrea, Africa. There were 382 participants (176 women and 206 men) whose age ranged from 16 to 83 years and educational level ranged from graduation to illiteracy. They attempted two inventories, namely, ‘Our Attitude towards Women' (OAW) and 'Our Thoughts and Beliefs' (OTB) measuring attitude towards women and culture in a society respectively. The results suggest that in general, the Eritreans showed favorable attitude towards women. The differences in the attitude along gender, educational level, educational level, national groups, age, and marital status are discussed. The r of – 0.082 between OAW and OTB is low indicating meager relationship between attitude towards women and the culture among Eritreans. This finding was confirmed in the analysis of top 10 % and bottom 10 % participants on OAW. The investigation suggests that improvement should be made in the attitude towards women of males and of low educated subgroups, through intervention programs.


(Gender & Behaviour: 2003 1: 55-71)