Gender Norms, Women's Empowerment, and Intimate Partner Violence in Colombia: A Mixed Methods Approach Open Access

Hynes, Michelle Elizabeth (2012)

Permanent URL: https://etd.library.emory.edu/concern/etds/6682x479c?locale=en
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Abstract

Abstract

Gender Norms, Women's Empowerment, and Intimate Partner

Violence in Colombia: A Mixed Methods Approach

By: Michelle Elizabeth Hynes

Findings from a mixed methods study exploring the relationship between couples' relative resources, the gender and community contexts, and intimate partner violence (IPV) will be presented. IPV is a global problem, with a lifetime prevalence of physical and/or sexual IPV by a partner ranging from 15% -71%. Rates of IPV vary between and within countries. Variation in IPV rates are due in part to differences in methodologies, but also indicate that contextual factors may influence individual risk of IPV. Using data from the 2005 Colombia Demographic and Health Survey, differences in schooling attainment in couples were explored to determine if these differences predicted women's experiences of recent IPV. Multivariate logistic regression was used to estimate the probability of any prior year IPV, controlling for women's schooling attainment, age, marital status, work status, number of children at home, witnessing of parental IPV, and household wealth. Multilevel modeling was then used to determine whether community characteristics directly affect a woman's individual risk of IPV. Finally, thirty-three qualitative interviews were conducted with displaced Colombian women to explore how displacement alters gendered roles and expectations in ways that may influence the risk of IPV. Results show that women who had higher relative schooling were at greater risk for recent IPV than women with equal or less relative schooling. Women who lived in communities with higher levels of IPV were also at higher risk of experiencing IPV. Changing gender roles of displaced women and their partners, particularly with regards to men's and women's employment, put women at risk for IPV. The quantitative findings suggest that women's greater relative resources may put women at risk of experiencing IPV because of perceived transgression of traditional gender norms. Qualitative findings clarify the dynamics of unfulfilled and transgressed gender roles of men and women as factors that may increase the risk of IPV. The complexities of interpersonal and contextual factors highlighted by the interviews also suggest ways in which quantitative measurement of risk factors for IPV might be improved.

Table of Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER 1: Introductory Literature Review




1
Global Prevalence of Intimate Partner
Violence

1
Consequences
of
IPV

1
Theoretical
Perspectives


1
Risk Factors for IPV
4
Internal
Displacement
and
IPV
Risk

9
Colombian
Context
11

Significance
of
the
Study
14
References








15

CHAPTER 2: Women's Schooling Advantage and Intimate Partner
Violence










24
Abstract








24
Introduction
26
Methods 32
Results








37
Discussion








40
Conclusions
43
References








45

CHAPTER 3: A Qualitative Study on the Effects of Displacement and
Gender Role Transition on Intimate Partner Violence



56

Abstract








56
Introduction
58
Methods 61
Results








65
Discussion








67
Conclusions
68
References








70

CHAPTER 4: A Multilevel Analysis of the Direct Effects of Community
Context on Intimate Partner Violence






77
Abstract








77
Introduction
79
Methods 85
Results








89
Discussion







101
Conclusions






104
References







106
CHAPTER 5: Summary and Conclusions



117



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