This article highlighted the proportion of help-seeking behavior among women subjected to violence in Ethiopia. In addition, it has contributed to the literature in the area of violence related help-seeking practice. This study found that less than a quarter (22.5%) of women who experienced violence sought help, which is in-line with a study completed in India [23], demonstrating that most female victims of violence did not seek help. This result is higher than findings in Mali (17.6%) [23], Dhaka Slums (19%) [21], and Afghanistan (20%) [26]. But lower than other developing nations [23], and a study done Nigeria (39.7%) [22], and Uganda (63.5%) [27]. The discrepancy may be due to the difference in religious and cultural views to violence [28]. On the other hand, violence within the marriage is considered as a family matter [20].
We found that older women (30 years and above) were more likely to seek help compared to their younger counterparts. This finding is in line with a study done in developing countries [23] and Canada [29]. A study in Afghanistan revealed women aged 25–34 years old more likely seek help than the youngest group [26]. However, Roberto et al. [30] reported that older women were less likely to report help seeking than their younger counterparts. This may be because older women know about sources of help and develop confidence to report the violence that occurs [29]. However, in some cases, as the age of the women increases and they have been in a relationship longer, they became more autonomous, and learn how to deal with the violence; this may contribute to a decrease in help-seeking behavior [31]. Studies completed in India, Nigeria, and Uganda did not show any significant association between age and help-seeking behavior [20, 22, 27].
In urban areas, various institutions are available to support women who seek help [32]. In support of this, the present study found that the help-seeking behavior of women living in rural areas was lower than those living in urban areas. In the rural areas, cultural and socioeconomic factors as well as accessibility of sources of help, may make help-seeking behavior difficult [28, 33]. Besides, rural women may consider violence as a private domain which is highly confidential [34]. This finding is different from studies done in Dhaka Slums and Bangladesh, in which rural dwellers had higher help seeking behavior than the urban women [21, 32]. This may be due to lengthy and costly legal processes which discourage urban resident women from seeking help [20].
The other factor that was found to be associated with help-seeking behavior was occupational status. Women employed in sales and agriculture jobs had higher help-seeking behavior. This may be due to employment which enable women to generate their own income and greater freedom to seek help [35]. Therefore, targeting women’s employment is an important intervention in the efforts to empower them and enhance help-seeking behavior to prevent and stop violence. On the other hand, having a husband with professional and agriculture jobs was associated with lower odds of seeking help. The odds of help-seeking behavior was lower among women whose husband had primary, secondary, and higher education compared to husbands with no education. The more educated the husband and the more professional the job, the less likely the woman will seek help. This may be because communication or cognitive skills gained from being more educated may contribute to better conflict resolution within marriage [37]. In addition, most often women are younger, not working, and less educated than their husbands, and the husband tends to dominate and discipline the wife [38]. Conversely, previous studies have revealed that women who had educated and employed husbands were less likely to experience violence [32, 36]. But the relationship between husband education and employment status and help-seeking for violence need further investigation.
Wealth status was found to be significantly associated with help-seeking behavior. Compared with the poorer wealth quintile, being in the richest quintile was associated with higher odds of seeking help for violence. Inversely, a study done in Canada reported that women with lower incomes were more likely to seek help than women with higher incomes [29]. Another study from India reported that women in the middle three wealth quintiles sought help than the poorest [20]. This implies that women with higher incomes are more likely to access resources to seek help [39].
Women who experienced sever violence have higher odds of help-seeking behavior than those who experienced less severe (mild) violence. Similarly, evidences have found a positive association between severe violence and help-seeking behavior [20, 21, 29]. This might be because experience of severe violence is more easily identifiable while seeking help. On the other hand, it is somewhat difficult to disclose mild violence since they are not visible and might elicit different responses from the source of help [35, 40]. Unlike other studies [20, 29, 34]. We found that education status of women, duration of marriage, number of children, religion, and media exposure were not associated with help-seeking behavior.
This study has some strengths. First, it used nationally representative data which allowed generalization of findings. Sample weights were applied in all analysis. Despite its strength this study has some limitations. First, the data on violence and help seeking behavior was self-reported which may have recall and social desirability bias, leading to an under-reporting of the rates. The other limitation was that EDHS did not provide information about the context surrounding the women, women’s knowledge and attitude towards violence, help seeking strategies, cultural values and norms, and accessibility of facilities for seeking help for a violence. Furthermore, due to the nature of the cross-sectional study, causal relationship cannot be drawn. Therefore, future studies need to consider such socio-cultural and environmental factors and the way in which these factors shape women’s help-seeking behavior.