Is Economic Empowerment Protective against Intimate Partner Violence for Women in the Democratic Republic of Congo?

Purpose: Secretary of State Hilary Clinton's 2009 visit to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) focused media attention on the brutal sexual violence experienced by women during armed conflict. Little attention is paid by media or researchers to other forms of violence against women occurring on a regular basis despite anecdotal evidence that abuse is widespread. To the author's knowledge no recent scholarly publications have focused on intimate partner violence (IPV) in the DRC. Prior research in developing countries indicates that women's status and economic empowerment are important protective factors against IPV. This study uses data from the 2007 Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) in Congo to determine prevalence of IPV in Congo and answer the following questions: Is economic empowerment protective against IPV? What are the risk factors associated with IPV for women in the DRC?

Methods: The 2007 Congo DHS, funded by the United States Agency for International Development, surveyed 2,759 married women between the ages of 15 and 49 about health, economic development, and experience of domestic violence. Women's ever-experience of IPV was measured using a modified version of the Conflict Tactics Scale administered according to World Health Organization guidelines. A five item question asking agreement or disagreement with hypothetical scenarios of wife-beating measured the acceptability of IPV. Measures of economic empowerment included wealth quintiles based on household assets and five indicators of women's autonomy in decision-making over household resources. Variables were entered into a logistic regression model and tested for association with IPV.

Results: Over 60% of the married sample of Congolese women had experienced at least one form of physical or sexual violence from an intimate partner. The average respondent had experienced 1.5 types of physical or sexual violence from an intimate partner over her lifetime. More than 75% of the sample expressed a willingness to justify wife-beating in at least one scenario. Age of first marriage (OR = 0.974) and attitudes justifying wife-beating (OR = 1.837) were significantly associated with IPV risk. None of the indicators of economic empowerment were significantly protective against IPV.

Conclusions: Widespread IPV in the DRC is a serious public health concern. Although economic empowerment is promoted widely as a strategy for women's protection against IPV, results indicate that it may not be protective for this population in the DRC. The finding that patriarchal attitudes around wife-beating was the strongest risk factor suggests that understanding and addressing social norms regarding women's status and IPV in the DRC should be a priority for any intervention. Additional research is needed to account for regional and community level factors in addition to individual variables.