Abstract:
Violence against women seems to be more of an economic than a sociological problem. In Ghana, no study
has investigated the economic causes of domestic violence against women. The chapter seeks to investigate
the economic factors that are likely to drive domestic violence among married couples. The study uses a
survey of 260 married women from selected communities around the University of Cape Coast. Due to the
nature of the measurement of domestic violence, the study adopts the binary logit model to estimate the
key economic variables that affect the likelihood of being subjected to domestic violence. Average income,
property ownership, economic activities, and their interactions seem to drive domestic violence after controlling
for some household covariates. It is found that income and a combination of being economically
engaged and owning an asset significantly affected domestic violence at their desired level of significance.
Stemming from this, the authors call on the appropriate authorities to make credit facilities available to
women to enable them to be economically engaged. Empowering women through the provision of microcredit
facilities has the potential to reduce the economic dimensions of domestic violence.
