INTRODUCTION
Our paper examines the intersectional elements of the links between women’s increased market-oriented economic activity and women’s experience of domestic violence. Through a literature review complemented by perspectives from staff within the Oxfam confederation working on women’s economic empowerment (WEE) and violence against women (VAW), our research found that WE has discernible and significant but often mixed impacts on women’s risk of domestic violence (DV): WEE can contribute to decreasing DV risk and increasing DV risk, and result in mixed outcomes within a given setting. Our paper engages with intersectionality in two ways. First, this paper sits at the intersection between economic and gender-based expressions of power, between economic rights and the right to be free of violence. Violence against women is based first and foremost in unequal gender relations but through a certain lens, we investigate how economic status differentiates VAW risk among women. It should not be assumed that improvements in a woman’s economic standing contribute to lowering her risk of gender-based violence. Second, we found that the relationships between WEE and DV1 are profoundly contextual and overlaid by intersecting identities. Whether economic empowerment contributes to increasing or decreasing women’s risk of violence depends on other factors of their circumstances and environments. This paper aims to encourage and assist practitioners to better integrate WEE and VAW in development programming in context-responsive ways, in order to facilitate more holistic empowerment of women.