Objective: Economic empowerment has been postulated as a remedy for reducing the prevalence of Intimate Partner violence (IPV). We examine the relationship between tolerance of IPV, indicators of economic empowerment among women (including educational and earning differences between spouses) and previous experience of spousal and non-spousal domestic abuse among married women in Nigeria.

Study Design: cross-sectional study of 4,065 married women ages 15-50 years included in the 2013 Demographic Health Survey.Respondents were defined as tolerant if they agreed with at least one reason for wife beating in the survey. Logistic regression used to assess the impact of indicators of economic empowerment on tolerance towards IPV.

Results: Compared to women who earned the same amount with their husbands, women who either earned more or earned less had an increased odds of tolerance for IPV (p=0.007 OR 2.64, p=0.014 OR 1.93 respectively). Furthermore, women with a past history of spousal abuse had a higher probability of tolerance for IPV (p-value=0.006, OR 1.56). Those with a history of non-spousal abuse had a lower probability of tolerance for IPV (p-value 0.004, and OR 0.56). Results for decision making involvement, and spousal educational differences were not significant.

Conclusions: Income differences may be an important factor in tolerance of spousal physical abuse. While Important, economic empowerment alone may not provide a protective effect in curbing intimate partner violence if it does not result in changes in acceptability of abuse. Efforts to increase economic empowerment should be combined with the provision of skills to exit violent relationships.