Measuring Women Autonomy and Justification for Domestic Violence in Zambia

Background: Across the globe, violence against women has been a significant problem. Social, economic, and cultural barriers have exercabated the magnitude of the phenomena. Wide spread occurrence of domestic violence combined with low socio-economic status may result in acceptance of male dominance often leading into women offering justifications for domestic violence. Women’s empowerment partly through improvement in women’s autonomy may significantly diminish women’s propensity to justify domestic violence and lay bare the actual emotional and physical cost of domestic violence (Kearney, 2001). However, access to social and economic resources that increase women autonomy become not only regulated but is also constrained as women’s capacity to make decisions crucial to her well-being are restricted (Rahman, 2012). Women whose husbands bring into marriage higher levels of human capital as well as material resources or live in cultural contexts that implicitly or explicitly sanction domestic violence to protect male power are more likely to justify domestic violence (Yount & Li, 2009).

Our understanding of some of the key underlying cultural factors influencing women’s justification for domestic violence in different cultural context still remains unclear. The purpose of this study is to empirically assess the direct causal effect of women’s autonomy on justification for domestic violence while taking into consideration the cultural context under which domestic violence occurs.

Method: The data for this study came from Zambia Demographic and Health Surveys (ZDHS) collected during 2008 and 2009. The sample for this study is a subset of 7146 women aged 15 to 40 years of age. For the purposes of our study we focused the analysis on data from the couple questionnaire. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted to develop a scale of women’s autonomy. Logistic regression was conducted to examine the predictors of justification for domestic violence.

Results: The CFA yielded excellent fit as suggested by the fit indices of Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA), goodness-of-fit index (GFI), and adjusted goodness-of-fit index (AGFI), suggesting that the modified women autonomy scale proposed for Zambia adequately fits the data. Logistic regression results show that years of education and spouse control significantly increased the odds of justification for domestic violence by women. However decrease in decision making power significantly increased the odds of justification for domestic violence among women.

Implications: International social work practitioners, researchers, and policy makers should always take into consideration the cultural context under which domestic violence happens when designing domestic violence interventions to empower women. In this regards, social workers may analyze the lack of autonomy from a person in environment (PIE) perspective aiding in the detailed assessment of various vulnerabilities that women suffer from within the family. The PIE approach is resourceful in not only tailoring available social services necessary to improve women’s capacities but also take into account the influences of the broad cultural community context within which households are socially located.