Women and girls experience violence in the home, in the workplace, in market places and on the way to work. Some 35% of all women – more than 800 million women globally - over the age of 15 have experienced sexual or physical violence. The most common form of violence is intimate partner violence (IPV) while around 7% of women have experienced sexual violence by non-partners. While we know gender-based violence (GBV) has health, mental and social consequences, and affects neonatal survival, there are also estimations of the economic consequences. Known estimations put the economic cost of violence against women and girls (VAWG) between 1.2% and 3.7% of GDP. 

While gender-based violence has economic consequences, is the reverse true? Does improving women’s economic empowerment/ access to resources reduce their vulnerability to violence?  The evidence base is unsurprisingly pretty mixed, given we are speaking about norms and systems of power that are deeply gendered. While many studies point to an increase in domestic violence against women and girls following their participation in economic activities, others report a decrease. 

Women’s economic agency – participation in economic activities and beyond – including independent access to assets, economic resources, money, bank accounts, markets, mobility and identity – disrupts gender norms that these are the domains of men or to be mediated by men. Ownership of land and cash may offer women greater bargaining position than employment, and as such may have a more positive relationship with reduction in violence/ shifting of power. On the other hand, backlash to change can result in an increase in GBV w/ increasing economic social empowerment – albeit increasingly seen as a “temporary” phenomenon.

Through all of this, there is increasing recognition that women’s own resilience, agency, and self-actualization still needs to be built. While economic inclusion (women’s access to productive resources or opportunities) may itself bring contradictory results in the short to medium term, credit, livelihoods, safety nets, and cash transfers paired with gender-transformative components, have been seen to reduce the risk and incidence of GBV. It’s important to include social empowerment and/or norm changing designs to increase women’s skills and agency.

We also, as a society, need to disrupt the normalization of gender-based violence. Economic interventions need to, in their design, address the institutional, and normative structures that perpetuate gender inequality. Indeed evidence also shows that holistic models of respectful workplaces and visible women’s leadership serve to reduce tolerance of GBV and harassment – at least in the formal sector.

In the many competing concerns that draw on our attention, we need to invest in women’s economic empowerment both as an intrinsic good, as well as the multipliers that follow. 

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