Women’s’Acceptance’ of Wife Beating in Egypt

Kathryn M. Yount, Emory University
Li Li, Emory University

This paper explores the influences of social learning, marital dependency, and social context on women’s reports that wife beating is justified among 5,450 female participants in the 2005 Egypt Demographic and Health Survey. One half of women justify wife beating for some reason. Women exposed to violence as children and wives have higher odds of justifying wife beating. Women who are dependent on their husband because they have fewer grades of schooling also have higher odds of justifying wife beating. In settings where women marry at older ages and proportionately more Christians reside, women have at least marginally lower odds of justifying wife beating. Marital dependency accounts for the largest share of the variability in women’s attitudes about wife beating.