A National-Level Assessment of IPV’s Effects on Nepali Women’s Empowerment

Background: Intimate partner violence (IPV) remains a pervasive public health and human rights issue, disproportionately impacting women’s autonomy, safety, and overall empowerment, globally. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 2024, 1 in 3 women (30%) worldwide have been subjected to either physical and/or sexual IPV or non-partner violence in their lifetime. In Nepal, where sociocultural norms shape gender roles and family dynamics, IPV remains a major barrier to women’s empowerment (Acharya, 2020). Women’s empowerment has been widely recognized as the global policy objective for women’s wellbeing and gender equality (UN, 2023). Empowerment has emanated from the concepts of having the agency and the capacity to choose and make decisions for oneself (Castro Lopes et al., 2021). Understanding how IPV shapes women’s empowerment across economic, educational, and social domains is critical for targeted prevention and intervention objectives. This study examines how key empowerment indicators predict Nepali women’s likelihood of experiencing IPV using nationally representative data.

Methods: Using the 2016 Nepal Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS), we analyzed data from n=2,757 women who responded to IPV items. A binary logistic regression model was developed to identify empowerment-related predictors of IPV. Education level, literacy, media use, financial inclusion, land ownership, mobile phone ownership, employment status, and wealth index were selected as indicators of empowerment. A backward LR selection method was used to determine the most parsimonious model. Model fit was assessed using -2LL, Nagelkerke R², and the Hosmer-Lemeshow test.

Results: The final model was statistically significant [χ²(df = 5)= 61.96, p < .001] and demonstrated acceptable fit (Hosmer-Lemeshow p = .10). Four empowerment indicators significantly predicted IPV exposure. Nepali women had lower odds of experiencing IPV when they had higher levels of education (OR = .72, p < .001), were currently employed (OR = .82, p = .03), and owned a mobile phone (OR = .64, p < .001). Land ownership was not a significant predictor (p = .08). Unexpectedly, higher wealth increased the likelihood of IPV with odds increased by 34% (OR = 1.34, p < .001). Re‑coded categories showed that women in the middle, richer, and richest groups were 50-80% more likely to experience IPV than poorer women.

Implications: Findings indicate that digital access, formal education, and employment may serve as protective factors against IPV for Nepali women, while wealth, contrary to the expectations, correlates with higher IPV risk. This suggests IPV in Nepal may be influenced by complex social dynamics, including partner control, shifting gender roles, and increased household conflict as economic status improves. Targeted interventions should strengthen women’s access to communication technologies, education, and employment opportunities while simultaneously addressing normative beliefs and relational power imbalances driving IPV. In addition, it is critical to assess wealthier women’s IPV risk and to assess contextual factors such as partner attitudes, family expectations, and social visibility of violence. Finally, rigorous inquiry in understanding and addressing barriers such as IPV risk is critical in advancing women’s empowerment and sustainable gender equality.