Indian women who earn more than husbands face violence risk

Indian women who are more educated than their husbands, who earn more or are sole breadwinners have a higher likelihood of experiencing frequent and severe intimate partner violence (IPV), a new study has claimed.

Programmes to improve women’s financial resources or employment opportunities may increase their risk of IPV, researchers said.

Microfinance and vocational programmes for women should consider making legal and psychological counselling available to participants, they said.

Abigail Weitzman, a graduate student at New York University, looked at data from the female-only module of India’s National Family Health Survey (NFHS) collected between 2005 and 2006.

The module contains data from a nationally representative sample of women aged 15-49 and includes nine variables pertaining to IPV.

It also asks a number of questions about women’s current employment, relative earnings, and access to other money.

Weitzman looked only at data from married women and explored the occurrence, frequency, and severity of violence.

Weitzman found that compared to women with less education than their husbands, women with more education face 1.4 times the risk of IPV, 1.54 times the risk of frequent violence, and 1.36 times the risk of severe violence.

She found a similar pattern for women who were better employed than their spouse. And women who were the sole breadwinners in their family faced 2.44 times the risk of frequent violence and 1.51 times the risk of severe violence as unemployed women whose husbands were employed.

“In global development efforts, there is a large emphasis on women’s employment and education. My research suggests that there can be a backlash, including violence, toward women who attain greater education or earnings than their husbands,” says Weitzman.

“Finding a solution will be tricky. Our response should not be to stop educating and employing women, but nor should we plow ahead without recognising this may put them at greater risk, and making changes to help protect them,” said Weitzman.

There are two existing theories that aim to predict what happens when a woman has status and resources that are equal to or greater than her husband’s.

One theory, called bargaining theory, posits that a woman who has more relative resources in a relationship should be at a lower risk for IPV.

A man in such a relationship would worry that his wife would withhold resources if he behaved violently towards her.

The other theory, known as gender deviance neutralisation, suggests that a woman’s superior resources would be viewed as gender deviant and a man would use violence to gain power or maintain control in the relationship. The study supports the latter theory.

The research was published in the journal Population and Development Review, published by the Population Council.

- See more at: http://www.theindianrepublic.com/nation/indian-women-earn-husbands-face-violence-risk-100030305.html#sthash.fjuQ66nB.dpuf