Global economy, gender equality, and domestic violence: A cross-national study

This dissertation examines how the global economy can marginalize and sustain unequal power relations between women and men in education, the labor force and gender empowerment. Further, how this context has created an environment where domestic violence continues to be a regular phenomenon in many women's lives. Although previous researchers have provided valuable insights on the global economy and gender inequality, and/or gender inequality and domestic violence, they have not analyzed the interconnections among the global economy, gender inequality, and domestic violence. Domestic violence theorists have discussed the effects of gender inequality on domestic violence prevalence rates. These theorists have overlooked the effects of the global economy on gender inequalities and domestic violence. At the same time, development research has discussed the effects of global economy on gender inequality but overlooked domestic violence. I have filled this gap by incorporating global economy variables through an ecological framework.; Findings indicate foreign direct investment (FDI) has significant positive effects on females' share of education and females' share of the service sector but negative effects on females' share of the formal and informal labor force, and the agriculture sector. Commodity concentration has negative effects on females' share of education and on the formal, agricultural, and industrial sectors; but increases females' informal sector share and females' share of the service sector. Export dependency also has negative effects on female's share of education and female's share of the agriculture sector, lowers females' informal sector share, and increases females' share of industry and service sector. The effects of the global economy on Gender Empowerment Measurement (GEM) scores reveal that all the global economy variables have significant negative effects on GEM scores.; Findings reveal that countries with high FDI, debt, and commodity concentration have higher domestic violence rates. Females' share of education and higher gender empowerment has negative effects on domestic violence. Finally, I have shown that the inclusion of variables from multiple levels, and inclusion of global economy variables, provide a more complete explanation of domestic violence rates among countries around the world rather than just focusing on only gender equality or cultural variables.