Impact of Patriarchal Norms and Attitudes on Health Security of Women in North Central Nigeria: A study of Nasarawa State University Women

Abstract

Patriarchal norms and attitudes shape societal expectations about women and limit their autonomy leading to gender-based violence, restricted access to resources in making health relate decision further exacerbating health risks.The main objective is to assess how patriarchal structures influence women’s health security, focusing on culture of silence and shame surrounding violence against women and how this places limits on women autonomy and health security. Quantitative method of data analyses was employed to analyse data collected from 171 randomly selected sample of female staff of Nasarawa State University. The study findings revealed that, a culture of silence and shame persist and women are ridiculed for daring to open up against violence thereby impacting women's mental health. This was confirmed by the consistently high mean scores (ranging from 4.04 to 4.79) indicating that societal norms discourage open discussions about violence and personal struggles. This exacerbates the mental health conditions of survivors of violence, preventing them from seeking support. The study also found that patriarchal attitude of shaming victims of abuse leads to post traumatic disorders and sometimes death. The study therefore, recommends that Non-governmental organizations and community based organizations should engage traditional and religious institutions in awareness programmes to dismantle negative norms and attitudes on women. Also, the federal government and State governments especially in North-Central Nigeria should domesticate international and regional agreements on rights of women and strengthen support systems, including accessible health services and safe spaces for survivors of gender based violence