scholarly journals Understanding the Impact of a Microfinance-Based Intervention on Women’s Empowerment and the Reduction of Intimate Partner Violence in South Africa

2007 ◽  
Vol 97 (10) ◽  
pp. 1794-1802 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia C. Kim ◽  
Charlotte H. Watts ◽  
James R. Hargreaves ◽  
Luceth X. Ndhlovu ◽  
Godfrey Phetla ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Intimate Partner Violence ◽  
Partner Violence ◽  
Women's Empowerment ◽  
Intimate Partner ◽  
Women’S Empowerment ◽  
The Impact

Positive Correlation Between Women’s Status and Intimate Partner Violence Suggests Violence Backlash in Mwanza, Tanzania

2021 ◽  
pp. 088626052110500
Author(s):  
Joseph A. Kilgallen ◽  
Susan B. Schaffnit ◽  
Yusufu Kumogola ◽  
Anthony Galura ◽  
Mark Urassa ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Intimate Partner Violence ◽  
Partner Violence ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
Women's Empowerment ◽  
Intimate Partner ◽  
Low Fertility ◽  
Women’S Empowerment ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Increased Risk

Urbanization in low and middle-income nations is characterized by economic and demographic shifts largely understood to be beneficial to women’s empowerment. These changes include increased education and wage-labor opportunities, a disruption of traditional patrilocal residence systems, and reductions in spousal age gap and fertility. However, such changes may drive a “violence backlash,” with men increasing intimate partner violence (IPV) in efforts to challenge women’s shifting status. To date, tests of this idea primarily relate to women’s changing economic status, with less known about the demographic correlates of IPV in urbanizing settings. Addressing this, we conducted a cross-sectional study of IPV behavior and attitudes in an urbanizing community in Mwanza, northern Tanzania ( n = 317). Consistent with a violence backlash, IPV was reported more often among women educated at higher levels than their husband, and women earning similar, rather than lower, wages to their husband were more likely to report that he condones IPV. These findings were independent of women’s absolute education and income. Furthermore, less frequent paternal kin contact, and relatively small spousal age gaps, generally understood to boost women’s empowerment, were associated with an increased risk of experiencing IPV. Less frequent paternal kin contact was also associated with an increased likelihood that a husband condones IPV. Contrary to our predictions, relatively lower fertility, generally linked to higher women’s empowerment, did not predict IPV behavior and women with high, rather than low, fertility were more likely to report that their husband condones IPV. Overall, our results support the notion of a violence backlash corresponding to economic changes for women that accompany urbanization. In contrast, demographic changes associated with urbanization have more variable relationships. Drawing on these results, we suggest future research avenues for better understanding the vulnerability of women to IPV in urbanizing settings.

WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT AND INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE IN BANGLADESH: INVESTIGATING THE COMPLEX RELATIONSHIP

2018 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 188-202 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saifa Binte Sanawar ◽  
Mohammad Amirul Islam ◽  
Shankar Majumder ◽  
Farjana Misu
Keyword(s):  
Intimate Partner Violence ◽  
Partner Violence ◽  
Physical Violence ◽  
Women's Empowerment ◽  
Intimate Partner ◽  
Women’S Empowerment ◽  
Logistic Regression Models ◽  
Younger Women ◽  
Childless Women ◽  
Differential Relationship

SummaryThe aim of this study was to assess whether women’s empowerment ensures reduced intimate partner violence (IPV). The differential relationship between women’s empowerment and IPV among married women in Bangladesh was investigated using 2007 Demographic and Health Survey data. Logistic regression models were used to assess whether women’s empowerment had any influence on their likelihood of experiencing IPV while controlling for other covariates. The analyses revealed that older cohorts of women, who were more empowered, were more vulnerable to physical violence than less-empowered, younger women. The likelihood of being affected by physical violence among less-empowered, childless women was greater than that of more-empowered women with only male children. Less-empowered, uneducated women were more likely to experience physical violence than more-empowered, primary-educated women. Less-empowered women who had been married for less than 5 years were more likely to suffer from physical violence than more-empowered women who had been married for more than 19 years. The likelihood of experiencing sexual violence was not found to have any significant association with women’s empowerment. The findings suggest that although women’s empowerment in Bangladesh is gradually improving, some sub-groups of empowered women are still susceptible to IPV.

The Impact of Participation in Research About Abuse and Intimate Partner Violence: An Investigation of Harms, Benefits, and Regrets in Young Adolescents in the Western Cape of South Africa

2017 ◽  
Vol 35 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 943-963
Author(s):  
Tracy McClinton Appollis ◽  
Sander Matthijs Eggers ◽  
Petrus J. de Vries ◽  
Hein de Vries ◽  
Crick Lund ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Intimate Partner Violence ◽  
Interpersonal Violence ◽  
Partner Violence ◽  
Research Participation ◽  
Intimate Partner ◽  
Western Cape ◽  
Young Adolescents ◽  
Ongoing Research ◽  
The Impact

There is very little evidence whether recalling and answering questions about abuse or interpersonal violence has a positive or negative impact on participants of such research. This is an important ethical dilemma to ensure an appropriate risk-benefit ratio in research with young people is maintained. We assessed reported harms, benefits, and regrets of young adolescents who participated in a sensitive research project, and compared the harms and benefits in those who had and had not been victims and/or perpetrators of abuse or intimate partner violence. Participants were 3,264 adolescents aged 12 to 15 years in 41 public schools in the Western Cape, South Africa, who completed a survey about intimate partner violence, verbal, physical, and sexual abuse, as part of an HIV prevention cluster randomized controlled trial. The majority of participants reported research participation as beneficial (70.3%), while 27.7% reported harms and 14% regrets. Victims of abuse were more likely than non-victims to report benefits (71.9% vs. 67.1%; p = .02) and harms (31% vs. 20.9%; p < .01) and were less likely to report regret (13.1% vs. 16.7%; p = .02). Perpetrators of abuse were less likely than non-perpetrators to report benefits (67.4% vs. 72.8%; p = .01) and more likely to report harms (36.4% vs. 26.1%; p < .01) and regrets (17.4% vs. 13.3%; p = .01). Our findings suggested that research participation was more likely to have a positive rather than a negative emotional impact on young adolescents and that relatively few regretted participating. Victims and perpetrators of abuse were more likely to report benefits than harms, supporting the ethical appropriateness of ongoing research on abuse and violence. We recommend that further research is required to clarify and standardize terminology and instruments to quantify these kinds of evaluations, including measurement of the severity and intensity of reported benefits, harms and regrets, and the longer term impact of participation in sensitive research.

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