“What happened to I’m my sister’s keeper?” A case of abuse at a university in South Africa

Abstract

Gender-based violence is a major concern in South African society and in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) which demonstrates a need to address this phenomenon. Not much is known about the forms of gender based violence and the places where they occur in these South African educational spaces. The study explored the forms of gender-based violence at public higher education institutions in South Africa and in this paper, we present the case of one campus of a public higher education institution. The study was informed by a composite theoretical framework combining social learning theory and social ecological theory. A purposive sample of 100 students and four representatives of the campus support services were also used to generate data using an open-ended questionnaire and semi-structured interviews respectively. Qualitative content analysis was utilised to analyse the data in this study. The conceptualisation of gender based violence for the study was based on Fay's conctThe The findings from the study established four forms of gender-based violence at this campus: physical, emotional, sexual and verbal abuse. The findings revealed that first year female students, members of the LGBTQI community and students living with disabilities were the most vulnerable to gender-based violence at this campus. The study illuminated multiple spatial areas of risk and several victim vulnerabilities at the campus which predisposed students to violence on this campus. From the study’s findings, we recommend the establishment of support structures for vulnerable groups identified.

Keywords

• gender-based violence
• physical abuse
• verbal abuse
• emotional abuse
• sexual abuse