Female autonomy in household decision-making and intimate partner violence: evidence from Pakistan
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Female autonomy in household decision-making and intimate partner violence: evidence from Pakistan Astghik Mavisakalyan
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Anu Rammohan2
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Received: 20 January 2020 / Accepted: 29 October 2020 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract The aim of this study is to explore the links between female autonomy in household decision-making and intimate partner violence in a highly relevant yet under-studied context: Pakistan. Using a nationally representative dataset, and employing matching and partial identification estimation approaches, we show that an increase in female autonomy in household decision-making is associated with a decrease in the probability of experiencing intimate partner violence. Moreover, female autonomy is also associated with lower tolerance for intimate partner violence. Our results call for a greater focus on female autonomy in policy efforts concerned with reducing intimate partner violence. Keywords Female autonomy Household decision-making Intimate partner violence Pakistan ●
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JEL codes J12 D10 O12. ●
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1 Introduction Goal Five of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) seeks to improve gender equality and empower women (UN 2018). However, across large parts of the developing world, violence against women is endemic, and has strong adverse consequences on a range of health and pregnancy-related outcomes, maternal morbidity, mental health and suicide (Beleche 2019; Campbell 2002; Krantz and Garcia-Moreno 2005). According to a World Health Organization (WHO) multicountry study, an estimated one in three females have experienced some form of
* Astghik Mavisakalyan [email protected] 1
Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre, Curtin University, GPO Box U1987, Perth, WA 6845, Australia
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UWA Business School, University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highwar, Perth, WA 6009, Australia
A. Mavisakalyan, A. Rammohan
physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner (WHO 2017). Intimate partner violence (IPV) is common in South Asia, and recent regional estimates from the WHO suggest that South Asia has the highest regional rate of IPV in the world, at 43 per cent (García-Moreno et al. 2013). According to a study by Fulu et al. (2013), 46 per cent of married men in northern India, and more than one in three men from a study in Bangladesh reported perpetration of physical violence, sexual violence, or both against their wives in the past 12 months. A recent Lancet series has further highlighted the extent of the problem (Ellsberg et al. 2015; Michau et al. 2015), but these studies have pointed out that the bulk of the studies come from high-income settings. Michau et al. (2015) have identified patriarchal social norms, as being a key driver for gender based violence, and Ellsberg et al. (2015) emphasise the need for greater research on domestic violence. The aim of this paper is to advance the knowledge on the factors influencing IPV particularly focusing on the role of female autonomy.1 Previous empirical
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