Gender Equality and Intimate Partner Violence: A Multilevel Analysis

Purpose:  There are mixed findings in the violence against women literature on whether improvements in female empowerment, such as employment outside the home, is associated with an increase or a decrease in the risk of intimate partner violence (IPV).  However, if improvements in gender equality are understood as transgressions of traditional gender norms, the relationship between female empowerment and IPV experience can be clarified.  We hypothesize that there is an increased risk of IPV if women’s increased access to education and employment violates the accepted social norm of the husband as primary income earner.

Methods:  Using data from the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), several multilevel mixed models were conducted to examine the association between measures of gender role transgression and physical, emotional, and sexual IPV in 25 low and medium income countries.  Gender role transgression was estimated by comparing educational and employment equality within couples.  Gender role transgressions occurred if women were more educated than their partners or if they were employed when their partners were not.

Results:  Women who are the sole income earners were at greater risk for all three forms of IPV than women whose partner was the sole income earner.  Women who were more educated than their partners were at slightly greater risk of experiencing violence compared to women in couples where neither partner has received any education.  Other significant predictors of increased risk of violence include if either partner believes IPV to be justified in certain situations and if couples were in polygamous relationships.

Conclusions:  As hypothesized, women in relationships which challenged traditional gender constructions of the man as the head of the household were at greater risk for experiencing violence.  These findings suggest that attempts to improve women’s educational and employment outcomes in developing countries must ensure that these attempts are not viewed as challenging accepted gender norms.  Community-level education campaigns are needed to change traditional gender norms to reflect women’s increased employment outside the home.  As well, employment and educational initiatives focused on increasing female empowerment in developing countries must ensure they are not inadvertently increasing women’s risk of violence in the home.