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

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Demography

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 residence 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 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.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Population and Family Health Sciences, Bloomberg School of Public Health, The Johns Hopkins University, 615 North Wolfe Street, 21205, Baltimore, MD

    Michael A. Koenig Ph.D. & Saifuddin Ahmed

  2. Public Health Program, Morgan State University, Baltimore, MD

    Mian Bazle Hossain

  3. Health Systems and Infectious Diseases Division, ICDDR,B: Center for Health and Population Research, Dhaka, Bangladesh

    A. B. M. Khorshed Alam Mozumder

Authors
  1. Michael A. Koenig Ph.D.
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  2. Saifuddin Ahmed
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  3. Mian Bazle Hossain
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  4. A. B. M. Khorshed Alam Mozumder
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Correspondence to Michael A. Koenig Ph.D..

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The authors gratefully acknowledge the helpful comments of Shireen Jejeebhoy and Michelle Hindin.

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Koenig, M.A., Ahmed, S., Hossain, M.B. et al. Women’s status and domestic violence in rural Bangladesh: Individual- and community-level effects. Demography 40, 269–288 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1353/dem.2003.0014

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