Key Social Norms Take-aways This study illustrates how prevailing gender norms—particularly male approval of wife beating and male dominance in household decision-making—shape the relationship between women’s economic participation and intimate partner violence (IPV) in Nigeria. Women’s employment, especially in contexts where traditional gender norms are strongly upheld, may increase their risk of IPV, suggesting that social norms can undermine the protective potential of economic empowerment. The findings support the need for norm-shifting strategies, particularly those that engage men and address rigid gender-role ideologies, to ensure that women’s work leads to genuine empowerment rather than heightened vulnerability.
Objectives To investigate whether women’s employment is associated with risk or protection from IPV in Nigeria, assess whether this association varies across localities, and explore how social norms around wife beating and male household decision-making influence the relationship between women’s work and IPV.
Methods The study used data from 20,635 currently married women aged 15–49 from the 2013 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey. Multilevel logistic regression models were used to estimate the associations between women’s employment and recent (past 12-month) experiences of physical and sexual IPV, including cross-level interactions with locality-level norms derived from men’s responses about wife beating and decision-making roles.
Results Overall, 23% of women reported IPV in the past 12 months. Women engaged in non-cash work had significantly higher odds of both physical and sexual IPV compared to unemployed women, while women in cash work were more likely to experience sexual IPV. The risk associated with cash work was amplified in localities with high male approval of wife beating. A spousal education gap favoring husbands increased the risk of sexual IPV, particularly in localities where men dominated household decision-making. Contrary to expectations, women’s own acceptance of wife beating did not significantly predict IPV, though interactions with social norms suggested complex dynamics at play.
Conclusions Women’s work, while often assumed to be empowering, may increase the risk of IPV in settings where traditional gender norms prevail. This underscores the need for integrated approaches that simultaneously promote women’s economic empowerment and transform harmful social norms. Programs must address male attitudes toward gender roles and power, particularly in communities with strong patriarchal norms, to mitigate backlash and support women’s safety and autonomy.