Digital Technology and Gender-based Conflicts in Families: Challenges and Implications

Abstract

This study explores the processes of digital technology and interactions within gendered family tensions, focusing on the peculiar socioeconomic and cultural environment of Abuja, Nigeria. The main objective is to investigate how digital tools mediate and aggravate tensions associated with economic control, surveillance, and social media usage in intimate relationships. Based on feminist technopolitics and intersectional theory, the study adopted a quantitative research design, having a structured survey distributed to 400 respondents, including both adult male and female respondents aged 21 to 50 years old, in five districts of Abuja. The data were collected using a structured questionnaire and analyzed through descriptive statistics, pearson correlation, and cross-tabulation, focused on the assessment of patterns of digital control, financial dependence, and online conflict escalation. The study results indicate that 62% of women living under economic control are restricted by access to digital means, while 57% monitor themselves by the use of digital devices. Conflict increase is highly attributable to social media use, with 58% attributing their arguments to online interactions. In conclusion, it recommends purposive digital literacy programs for couples, gender-sensitive digital financial inclusion, and legal reforms to curb digital surveillance and coercive control within domestic spaces. Thus, these findings give an idea essential to policy in determining how technology mediates power and inequality in Nigerian families.