Episode 5: “How Women’s Socio-Economic Status Correlates with Intimate Partner Violence”

“If women are better off economically in society they essentially have the ability to negotiate in the household better because they can actually leave if things get really bad.” – Dr. Siwan Anderson

In the final episode of our mini series, Dr. Siwan Anderson talks about how women’s socio-economic status strongly correlates with their health outcomes, especially Intimate Partner Violence (IPV). Dr. Anderson also discusses some interesting findings in her research on how women are less likely to suffer abuse if they have access to a share of the household. Her current research looks at the women’s relationships with power in the household and how religious and cultural norms come into play in this context.

Resources mentioned in the episode:

• Intimate Partner Violence and Female Property Rights
• Missing Unmarried Women
• Unbundling Female Empowerment
• How Economics can Contribute to Evolutionary Perspectives on the Family​​​​​​
• Property Rights over Marital Transfers

​​​​Guest Biography:

Dr. Siwan Anderson is a professor in the Vancouver School of Economics at the University of British Columbia. Her research area is applied development economics and much of her work centers on women in developing countries. She has worked on determinants of female autonomy, missing women, and marriage markets in various contexts. Dr. Anderson is a Research Fellow at the Bureau for Research and Economic Analysis of Development (BREAD) and the Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR), and a Faculty Associate at the Center for Effective Global Action (CEGA) at the University of California, Berkeley. She is also a member of the Institutions, Organizations, and Growth research group of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. Dr. Anderson is the first woman to receive the John Rae Prize, awarded by the Canadian Economic Association.