Connection between Women’s Status and Domestic Violence

Increased education, higher socioeconomic status, non-Muslim religion, and extended family residence is associated with lower risks of violence. The effects of women’s status on violence is highly context-specific. In the more culturally conservative area, higher individual-level women’s autonomy and short-term membership in savings and credit groups were both associated with significantly elevated risks of violence, and community-level variables were unrelated to violence. In the less culturally conservative area, in contrast, individual-level women’s status indicators were unrelated to the risk of violence, and community-level measures of women’s status were associated with significantly lower risks of violence, presumably by reinforcing nascent normative changes in gender relations.