The Guardian South African survey in province of Gauteng finds 37.4 per cent of men confessing to rape, while 25.3 per cent of women say they are victims More than one in three South African men questioned in a survey admitted to rape, the latest evidence in the country of a violent culture of patriarchy.

Researchers found that more than three in four men said they had perpetrated violence against women.

Nearly nine in 10 men believe that a woman should obey her husband and almost six in 10 women also agreed with the statement.

South Africa has one of the highest rates of rape in the world. Last year a survey by the Medical Research Council (MRC) found that 28 per cent of men in Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal provinces said they had raped a woman or girl.

A new MRC study in Gauteng, the country's wealthiest province, found that 37.4 per cent of men admitted having committed a rape, while 25.3 per cent of women said they had been raped.

The survey questioned 511 women and 487 men, of whom 90 per cent were black and 10 per cent white.

Rachel Jewkes of the MRC said: "We see a situation where the use of violence is so widespread that not only is it seen as being legitimate but I think quite often women forget it. They just see it as a normal effect."

Jewkes cited her survey's findings on gender attitudes. Although both largely agreed that "people should be treated the same whether they are male or female", 86.7 per cent of men and 57.9 per cent of women also endorsed the statement that "a woman should obey her husband".

Some 53.9 per cent of men and 29.8 per cent of women agreed that "a man should have the final say in all family matters", while 37.3 per cent of men and 23.2 per cent of women supported the view that "a woman needs her husband's permission to do paid work".

Asked about sexual entitlement in marriage, only 55 per cent of both men and women said they thought "it is possible for a woman to be raped by her husband". Some 38.7 per cent of men and 29.3 per cent of women thought that "a woman cannot refuse to have sex with her husband" and 22.3 per cent of men and 8.8 per cent of women felt that "if a wife does something wrong, her husband has the right to punish her".

The survey also found that 32 per cent of men and women agreed that "in any rape case, one would have to question whether the victim is promiscuous", while 20.1 per cent of men and 15.6 per cent of women said that "in some rape cases, women want it to happen".

Jewkes said: "What we see here is a set of attitudes reflecting men's views that they are legitimate in the use of violence against women, and women in many respects acquiescing to this."