3G Internet, Intimate Partner Violence, and Women’s Empowerment: Evidence from Nigeria

Ridhi Kashyap, Oxford University
Prashant Poddar, University of Oxford
Till Koebe, Saarland University
Valentina Rotondi , Supsi

A growing body of research has highlighted the impacts of mobile phones on women’s status in low- and middle-income countries, through improved labour market opportunities, contraceptive knowledge and access, and decision-making power within the household. However, this literature relies on cross-sectional designs using measures of individual technology adoption that are endogenous, and does not distinguish between type of mobile technology (2G v 3G). This distinction is important because the spread of the internet can have theoretically ambiguous and complex effects, ranging from exposure to globalized liberal ideas to reinforcing gender stereotypes. In this paper, we examine how the rollout of 3G mobile networks over time in Africa’s most populous country, Nigeria, affects women’s status within the household looking at the experience of intimate partner violence (IPV). We draw on three waves of the Demographic and Health Survey data, which we link with novel, high-resolution mobile coverage maps, and estimate the impact of 3G using a twoway fixed effects design. We find that the 3G network expansion leads to reductions in emotional, sexual and physical IPV among women, with support for ideational and empowerment mechanisms in explaining these reductions. We find reductions in the acceptability of IPV among women, although less so among men. Among men and women, we find evidence for increases in women's decision-making power in the household. 3G exposure also brings shifts in demographic behaviour, linked to delayed marriage and first births for women. Our results highlight the potential of technological expansion to influence gender dynamics within households.

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 Presented in Session 120. Domestic Violence, Protection and Legal Contexts of Family