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WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT AND INTIMATE PARTNERVIOLENCE IN BANGLADESH: INVESTIGATING THE COMPLEXRELATIONSHIP

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 March 2018

Saifa Binte Sanawar ,
Mohammad Amirul Islam ,
Shankar Majumder  and
Farjana Misu
Saifa Binte Sanawar
Affiliation:
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Mohammad Amirul Islam*
Affiliation:
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Dhaka, Bangladesh Department of Agricultural Statistics, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh, Bangladesh
Shankar Majumder
Affiliation:
Department of Agricultural Statistics, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh, Bangladesh
Farjana Misu
Affiliation:
Department of Agricultural Statistics, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh, Bangladesh
*
1Corresponding author. Email: maislam_soton@yahoo.com
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Summary

The aim of this study was to assess whether women’sempowerment ensures reduced intimate partnerviolence (IPV). The differential relationshipbetween women’s empowerment and IPV among marriedwomen in Bangladesh was investigated using 2007Demographic and Health Survey data. Logisticregression models were used to assess whetherwomen’s empowerment had any influence on theirlikelihood of experiencing IPV while controlling forother covariates. The analyses revealed that oldercohorts of women, who were more empowered, were morevulnerable to physical violence than less-empowered,younger women. The likelihood of being affected byphysical violence among less-empowered, childlesswomen was greater than that of more-empowered womenwith only male children. Less-empowered, uneducatedwomen were more likely to experience physicalviolence than more-empowered, primary-educatedwomen. Less-empowered women who had been married forless than 5 years were more likely to suffer fromphysical violence than more-empowered women who hadbeen married for more than 19 years. The likelihoodof experiencing sexual violence was not found tohave any significant association with women’sempowerment. The findings suggest that althoughwomen’s empowerment in Bangladesh is graduallyimproving, some sub-groups of empowered women arestill susceptible to IPV.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Biosocial Science , Volume 51 , Issue 2 , March 2019 , pp. 188 - 202
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press, 2018 

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