Impact of Gender-Based Violence on Women’s Political Aspirations in Okrika and Ogu/Bolo Local Government Areas Of Rivers State

Abstract

The study examined the impact of Gender-Based violence on women’s political aspirations in Okrika and Ogu/Bolo Local Government Areas of Rivers State. The study was guided by three objectives from which three research questions were derived. The descriptive survey research design was adopted in the study with a population of 580 leaders and members from political community-based organisations in Okrika and Ogu/Blo Local Government Areas of Rivers State. This comprises 68 leaders and 512 members from political community-based organisations in Okrika and Ogu/Bolo Local Government Areas of Rivers State. The entire population was studied without sampling due to the manageable size of the population. The instrument for data collection was a structured questionnaire titled “Impact of Gender-Based Violence on Women’s Political Aspirations Questionnaire”. The instrument was validated by three experts while the reliability of the instrument was established through a test of internal consistency using Cronbach Alpha method. Coefficients of 0.77, 0.73 and 0.88 were obtained for the various clusters of the instrument which showed that the instrument was reliable. The research questions of the study were answered using mean and standard deviation. The findings of the study revealed among others that targeted physical assault by political opponents, sexual harassment and systemic verbal abuse by political opponents  impact on women's political aspirations in Okrika and Ogu/Bolo LGAs of Rivers State to a high extent. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended among others that Rivers State Government should enact specific legislation criminalizing violence against women in politics, with enhanced penalties for politically-motivated gender-based violence.