That’s Called “Violence”: How Foreign Aid Taught Malawians Global Scripts about Intimate Partner Violence

• In Event: 288 - Regular Session. Globalization

Abstract

Data from the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) in Malawi reveal substantial temporal shifts in Malawian women’s attitudes toward intimate partner violence and actual cases of violence against women (Macro International 2000; 2004; 2010). More women are stating that a husband is not justified in beating his wife than before, increasing from 61 percent in 2000 to 86 percent in 2010. Yet, this apparent attitudinal change does not correspond with a decline in women’s experiences of abuse, as one might expect. Self-reported rates of abuse among Malawian women instead have risen, climbing from 25 to 35 percent between 2004 and 2010. What accounts for these paradoxical trends? I find that foreign aid projects aimed at improving gender equality and decreasing violence against women are responsible for both the increases in stated attitudinal rejection of wife-beating among females and in women’s self-reports of experiencing abuse by their husbands. As a result of foreign aid, Malawians have become more apt to: (1) tell survey interviewers that they reject wife-beating, thereby demonstrating their knowledge of cultural scripts of modernity, and (2) recognize when they have been abused and be more willing to share that information. My findings are derived from multilevel regression analyses which combine novel foreign aid data with the 2000, 2004, and 2010 DHS of female respondents.

Author

• Jeffrey Swindle, University of Michigan