Impact of the Spread of Mass Education on Domestic Violence against Wives

This paper investigates the association between mass education and domestic violence against wives in rural Nepal. Previous research on domestic violence in South Asian societies reveals the important influence of prevailing patriarchal ideology and the subordinate status of women within the family. However, the recent spread of mass education is likely to have important consequences in the opposite direction. Using data from 1,778 currently married women and their husbands from the Chitwan Valley Family Study in Nepal, we test the consequences of spread of mass education for domestic violence against wives. The results show that women’s childhood access to school, their parents’ schooling, and women’s own and their husbands' schooling each tend to reduce wives’ likelihood of experiencing domestic violence. Indeed husbands’ education is a particularly powerful force reducing domestic violence against wives. These associations explain the historical declines in the incidence of domestic violence against wives in Nepal.