A Frightening Global Truth: Domestic Violence Within Social Normativity

A Frightening Global Truth: Domestic Violence Within Social Normativity

by Carly JonesNo Comments
In reviewing data from Demographic and Health Surveys administered in low and middle-income countries between 2005 and 2017, researchers at the University of Bristol have come to an unsettling conclusion; domestic violence against women often exists within the bounds of social normativity. These surveys evaluated the social acceptability of domestic violence when provoked by certain situations, such as when a woman goes out without telling her partner, argues with her partner, neglects her children, is suspected of being unfaithful, refuses to have sex or burns a meal. It was found that approximately 36% of survey participants considered domestic violence justifiable in at least one of these instances. Furthermore, in 36 out of the 49 countries studied, women were more likely to justify this abusive behavior than men, speaking volumes to the deep entrenchment of female subordination, even amongst women. The data regarding the social acceptance of domestic violence is highly variable, ranging anywhere from 3% of the population accepting this...
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Data+ Team Introduces Novel Visualization Methods to Understand Contraceptive Trends

Data+ Team Introduces Novel Visualization Methods to Understand Contraceptive Trends

by Megan HuchkoNo Comments
Saumya Sao (T ’20, Gender, Feminist and Sexuality; Global Health) and Melanie Lai Wei (Masters’ Candidate, Statistical Science) were proud to share the results of their 10-week Data+ project, Big Data for Reproductive Health, or BD4RH. The pair was just one of 25 teams that spent the summer using data-driven approaches to solve interdisciplinary challenges. The BD4RH team, led by Amy Finnegan and Megan Huchko, sought to build a web-based application that will allow users to visualize and analyze contraceptive calendar data from the DHS. To ground their project, they did a mapping exercise to identify currently available tools, identifying core elements they liked and key areas a new tool could improve. Using this data, and user feedback from various stakeholders in the field, they created a website that hosts four different data visualization methods to interpret trends in contraceptive use from the DHS contraceptive calendar. The site currently uses Kenya data to demonstrate efficacy, but datasets will be added...
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What We’ve Been Up To and What’s Next

What We’ve Been Up To and What’s Next

by kb330@duke.eduNo Comments
It’s been a busy spring semester here at the Center for Global Reproductive Health. We opened the semester with the inaugural Global Reproductive Health Leadership Symposium which brought together ten east African researchers and over 25 Duke fellows, researchers and students for a three-day hands-on meeting at Duke. Attendees shared areas of research, participated in grant writing workshops, and received in-depth training on leadership and mentorship. One of the key events from the Symposium was a lunch session “How Gender, Race, and Ethnicity Can Impact Leadership Opportunities”. With a standing room only crowd, Lola Fayanju from general surgery, Nimmi Ramanujam from Pratt, and Provost Sally Kornbluth engaged in a lively discussion moderated by Kathy Sikkema on their career paths, decision points, and how they have defined themselves as leaders. They also shared key insights on what it felt like to be trailblazers in their respective fields. It was an incredible panel that brought together multiple different sectors and provided real-life context...
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The Value of Big Data for Family Planning

The Value of Big Data for Family Planning

by kb330@duke.eduNo Comments
While the use of modern methods of contraception are now commonplace in many countries, one-third of women in developing countries who begin using a modern method of contraception quit within the first year and half quit within two years[i]. Most discontinuation occurs among women who want to avoid pregnancy putting them at risk for unwanted pregnancies, maternal morbidity and mortality[ii]. Traditional measures of contraceptive use are collected retrospectively from population representative surveys conducted only every five years which are not well-suited to measuring contemporary trends in contraceptive discontinuation. This is problematic because advocates and health ministries cannot address concerns in a reasonable amount of time to impact widespread change. "Big Data" can supplement these static sources by providing dynamic, real time tracking of the reasons women discontinue using contraceptives and open up possibilities to prevent discontinuation or help facilitate switching between methods. So what exactly is "Big Data" and how can it supplement traditional reproductive health data? Big data is commonly thought...
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