Who Should Versus Who Does: Couple Disagreement in Decision-Making and Domestic Violence in Ghana

Using an index of agreement and disagreement between husbands and wives about who should, and who actually does make the final decision in five decision-making areas as a measure of power in marriage; this paper uses data from the Ghana Demographic and Health Survey of 2008 to investigate whether gender equitable attitudes lead to gender equitable behaviours, and whether these behaviours have an effect on domestic control and violence issues in Ghana. Preliminary findings indicate that there are marked discrepancies between husbands’ statement of who should have final say and wives account of who does have final say in all the decisions considered. Further, all but one of the decisions is strongly associated with domestic violence. Further analysis will employ various regression models to tease out the details of the relationships between decision-making in the various spheres considered and different aspects of domestic violence.