Women’s Economic Empowerment and Domestic Violence: Links and lessons for practitioners working with intersectional approaches

Overview

This paper examines the intersectional elements of the links between women’s increased market-oriented economic activity and women’s experience of domestic violence. Through a literature review, complemented by perspectives from staff working within the Oxfam confederation working on women’s economic empowerment (WEE) and violence against women (VAW), the research discussed in the paper found that WE has discernible and significant, but often mixed, impacts on women’s risk of domestic violence (DV), with the relationships between WEE and DV being profoundly contextual and overlaid by intersecting identities. 

The paper aims to encourage and assist practitioners to better integrate WEE and VAW in development programming in context-responsive ways, in order to facilitate more holistic empowerment of women.