GBV an issue of public interest:FSS Dean

Heritage Kehinde

The Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences, Professor Olufunlayo Olaotan Bammeke has decried Gender-based Violence (GBV) as an issue of public interest that should be taken up by all social actors in the society.

The Professor of gender and development studies posited so because according to her, GBV transcends the immediate milieu of the social actors and spans their community, gender, and norms, laws, and global ideologies.

Bammeke disclosed this while delivering the 15th inaugural lecture in the 2021/2022 academic session, entitled; ‘The Public in the Private’, a title adapted from Wright Mill’s book, ‘The Sociological Imagination’ where he makes a distinction between personal troubles and public issues.

The Dean established that while GBV is generally perceived to be a private problem, it is a public issue that is generating public concerns. Prof. Bammeke in her lecture explained the forms, and types of gender-based violence, and the cycle, while domestic occurs within a family, gender-based violence transcends outside the family.

She continued by noting that although the act of gender-based violence cuts across both genders and all age groups, it disproportionally affects women and girls because of their historical disadvantage.

According to her, GBV hinders the performance of the productive and reproductive roles of women and it’s a major impediment to the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals, especially Goal number 5 which seeks to ‘achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.

She therefore called on the government to review existing laws and abrogate those which permit the abuse of women and children under whatever guise because such negative laws show that society has given more than a tactic approval for violence against women and children.

The Dean further made several recommendations aimed at governments, families, society, religious institutions, professionals, and survivors.

The event was graced by the Vice-chancellor, Professor Folashade Ogunsola, FAS who was represented by Deputy Vice-chancellor (Development Services) Professor Ayodele Atsenuwa, who presided over the lecture. Professor Ayodele commended the Dean and congratulated her on paying the academic debt to the university.

Family members, friends, mentors, colleagues, students, mentees, and the whole of the faculty of social science were also in attendance at the lecture.

Professor Bammeke joined the services of the University of Lagos in 1996 as a Graduate Assistant at the Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, and rose to the rank of a Professor in 2017.