Economic Agency and Patriarchal Backlash: Women's Occupation and the Risk of Spousal Violence in India

Abstract

Women's economic participation is widely regarded as a pathway to empowerment, yet its relationship with intimate partner violence (IPV) remains contested in patriarchal contexts where employment may provoke male backlash rather than confer protection. Using data from India's National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5, 2019-21), this study examines associations between women's occupational status and spousal violence among 62,381 ever-married women aged 18-49. Occupation was categorised as not employed, daily-wage, and salaried. Binary logistic regression estimated associations with physical, sexual, emotional, and any spousal violence, while interaction models assessed whether asset ownership, internalised misogyny, decision-making autonomy, and the partner pay gap moderated the employment–violence relationship. Overall, 26.8 percent of women reported at least one form of spousal violence in the preceding 12 months. Daily-wage workers were significantly more likely to experience all forms of violence (AOR: 1.17, 95% CI: 1.12-1.23), while salaried employment showed no significant independent association. Asset ownership amplified risk across all employment categories, consistent with patriarchal backlash, whereas decision-making autonomy operated as a meaningful protective factor, particularly among salaried women. Partner controlling behaviour and alcohol consumption were the strongest predictors overall. These findings indicate that women's economic participation does not uniformly reduce spousal violence and may heighten vulnerability when employment is precarious or unaccompanied by genuine domestic agency. Policies promoting women's economic inclusion must be integrated with normative change interventions and intra-household power gains to produce durable reductions in IPV.