Women’s status and domestic violence in rural Bangladesh: individual-and community-level effects

Type Journal Article - Demography
Title Women’s status and domestic violence in rural Bangladesh: individual-and community-level effects
Author(s)
Volume 40
Issue 2
Publication (Day/Month/Year) 2003
Page numbers 269-288
URL http://europepmc.org/abstract/med/12846132
Abstract
We explore the determinants of domestic violence in two rural areas of Bangladesh. We found increased education, higher socioeconomic status, non-Muslim religion, and extended family resi-dence to be associated with lower risks of violence. The effects of women’s status on violence was found to be 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 vio-lence. In the less culturally conservative area, in contrast, individual-level women’s status indica-tors 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.

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