Withholding money or not being allowed to work: so many women face economic violence

In Finance Flash, ELFIN provides you with the most important, salient news from the world of finance. This time: four in 10 women experiencing domestic violence are also economically oppressed.

If you are a woman experiencing domestic violence, chances are you will also be abused financially. A Radboudumc study shows that economic oppression is often part of domestic violence. This result is based on interviewing 200 women who knocked on SAFE, an online platform where women can go when they are being abused at home. A whopping 42.9 percent also reported being economically oppressed by her partner. Although that percentage is probably higher, Nicole van Gelder of the Radboudumc tells Trouw. After all, economic oppression is still a relatively unknown term, so it may well be that many women do not know they have to deal with it.

Thus, because economic oppression is often a component of domestic violence, the research also refers to it as economic violence. So what should you think about? For example, women are not allowed to work, or they have to turn in their wages to their partners. For example, debts are also incurred in the wife’s name or she may not go to college. Economic oppression can also occur very subtly, such as when a woman is denied insight into the money matters of hers and her partner’s.

The Radboudumc hopes that more attention will be paid to this form of partner violence, it informs Trouw. Indeed, by applying economic violence, women are not only damaged economically, according to researcher Renée Römkens of the University of Amsterdam, their freedom is also taken away. After all, leaving a partner is a lot harder if you don’t have the financial resources.