Empowering women facing gender-based violence amid COVID-19 through media campaigns.

Publisher: Springer Nature Publishing Country of Publication: England NLM ID: 101697750 Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 2397-3374 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 23973374 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Nat Hum Behav Subsets: MEDLINE

Original Publication: [London] : Springer Nature Publishing, [2017]-

COVID-19*/prevention & control ; COVID-19*/psychology ; Social Media* ; Gender-Based Violence*/prevention & control ; Gender-Based Violence*/psychology ; Intimate Partner Violence*/prevention & control ; Intimate Partner Violence*/psychology; Humans ; Female ; Adult ; Empowerment ; Egypt ; Young Adult ; Women's Rights ; SARS-CoV-2

COVID-19 heightened women's exposure to gender-based and intimate partner violence, especially in low-income and middle-income countries. We tested whether edutainment interventions shown to successfully combat gender-based and intimate partner violence when delivered in person can be effectively delivered using social (WhatsApp and Facebook) and traditional (TV) media. To do so, we randomized the mode of implementation of an intervention conducted by an Egyptian women's rights organization seeking to support women amid COVID-19 social distancing. We found WhatsApp to be more effective in delivering the intervention than Facebook but no credible evidence of differences across outcomes between social media and TV dissemination. Our findings show little credible evidence that these campaigns affected women's attitudes towards gender or marital equality or on the justifiability of violence. However, the campaign did increase women's knowledge, hypothetical use and reported use of available resources.
(© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.)

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ANR-17-EURE-0010 Agence Nationale de la Recherche (French National Research Agency)

Date Created: 20230807 Date Completed: 20240806 Latest Revision: 20240807

20240808

10.1038/s41562-023-01665-y

37550411