On my article in International Comparative Jurisprudence
Intimate partner violence is one of the most pervasive human rights violations, and one of the least reported: across the EU, only a small fraction of women report their most serious incident to the police. For years, one answer has dominated policy thinking: give women economic independence, and they will be able to leave abusive relationships.
In Challenging Violence through Women’s Empowerment: Insights from Former Sovietized Countries, Jolanta Apolewicz and I test that assumption, with a focus on the formerly Sovietized countries of Central and Eastern Europe. Our conclusion: economic empowerment matters, but on its own it is not enough. Where cultural norms rooted in patriarchy persist, together with unpaid work and the “double shift”, economic empowerment fails to bring lasting change. In some cases, programmes designed to strengthen women’s economic position can even, at least temporarily, increase their exposure to violence.
The COVID-19 pandemic offered an unusually clear test. Research from several countries showed that the burden of unpaid domestic work continued to fall on women regardless of who earned more or who stayed at home. What shaped the division of work was not income or bargaining power, but social norms.
This is why we argue for moving from economic to socio-economic empowerment: economic measures combined with work on social norms, anti-discrimination law, education, public health, effective criminal enforcement, and disaggregated data on violence and on what prevents it.
It matters especially in our region, which carries its own legacy: formal equality in employment, alongside persistent patriarchal norms at home. Without addressing both, empowerment remains a promise on paper.
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