Contested development?: intimate partner violence and women's employment in urban and rural Tanzania

<p>Abstract copyright data collection owner.</p>Study aims: To improve understanding of the relationship between women's employment and risk of intimate partner violence in urban and rural Tanzania, and explore the policy and conceptual implications.Methodology: The 18 month study will involve the analysis of high quality data collected from Dar-es-Salaam, and a contrasting rural site, Mbeya. The survey asked women about their experience of physical and sexual partner violence. Data were also collected about women's financial autonomy, decision making and coping strategies. Descriptive information about respondents and their partners were also collected. The analysis will be used to better understand the extent to which, in each setting, women's employment and financial autonomy may either reduce women's risk of violence, and potentially make it more feasible for women to challenge or leave violent relationships, or conversely, whether employment may be associated with increased risk.Complementary qualitative research in both sites will explore how poor women engaged in formal or informal employment activities outside the home describe the impact of their work on their household roles and relationships, including the risk of violence; and whether these have changed over time. The strategies used by poor women to mediate the potential risk of violence will also be explored