Is Economic Empowerment a Protective Factor Against Intimate Partner Violence? Evidence from Turkey

This paper analyzes the relationship between women’s economic empowerment and the incidence of intimate partner violence (IPV) using data from the National Survey on Domestic Violence against Women in Turkey (2008, 2014). Two hypotheses are tested: (i) women’s economic independence reduces the risk of partner violence as suggested by household bargaining models; (ii) women’s vulnerability to IPV increases when their economic situation improves relative to their partner’s as suggested by a male backlash model. Women’s employment has a positive effect on the exposure to IPV but it is not statistically significant after controlling for the simultaneous causality between employment status and IPV. Earning more income than their partners, on the other hand, lowers the risk of IPV by 9.3%, providing evidence for the household bargaining model. The protective effect of income differs according to class positions of women. Earning more income than their partners lowers the risk of physical (7.5%) and sexual violence (6.4%) for women in poor households while it lowers the risk of psychological violence (11.5%) for women in medium-wealth and rich households.