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The Threat of Domestic Violence and Women Empowerment: The Case of West Africa
Author(s) -
Diallo Saikou Amadou,
Voia Marcel
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
african development review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.654
H-Index - 32
eISSN - 1467-8268
pISSN - 1017-6772
DOI - 10.1111/1467-8268.12169
Subject(s) - domestic violence , empowerment , residence , wife , economic growth , political science , geography , development economics , socioeconomics , demographic economics , poison control , suicide prevention , economics , environmental health , medicine , law
This paper assesses the significance of a set of threats of domestic violence in ten West African countries that arguably limit the potential of women in particular and the development of society. The data consists of a country‐specific Demographic and Health Survey (DHS), conducted in the same way for each participating country. The risk of domestic violence and the intensity of its threat are assessed using different probabilistic model specifications together with an assessment of how heterogeneous/homogenous are these effects across the set of countries. The overall results suggest that religion has played a significant role in relation to domestic violence in most countries. Area of residence (rural) has played an important positive role as well. The lack of education increases the threat, and level of well‐being and/or household's level of wealth have a significant negative impact on the threat of domestic violence in general. Finally, the factor that defines the improvement in wife's social status which is characterized by the wife's higher level of education has also been important in reducing the threat of domestic violence.