3G Internet, Intimate Partner Violence, and Women's Empowerment: Evidence from Nigeria

Ridhi Kashyap, University of Oxford
Prashant Poddar, University of Oxford
Till Koebe, Saarland University
Valentina Rotondi, SUPSI & University of Oxford

A growing body of research has highlighted the impacts of mobile phones on women’s status in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), through improved labour market opportunities, contraceptive knowledge and access, and decision-making power within the household. However, this literature relies on cross-sectional designs and does not distinguish between type of mobile technology (2G v 3G). This distinction is important because the spread of the internet can have theoretically ambiguous and complex effects, which can enable exposure to information and globalized liberal ideas, but also reinforce gender stereotypes, trigger backlash effects, and spread misinformation. We examine how the rollout of 3G mobile networks over time in Africa’s most populous country, Nigeria, affects women’s status within the household looking at the experience of intimate partner violence and women’s decision-making power. We draw on two waves of Demographic and Health Survey data, which we link with mobile coverage maps, and estimate the impact of 3G using cluster-matched difference-in-difference models. We find the 3G network expansion results in reductions in emotional and physical IPV, as well as improved women’s autonomy within the household. Our findings emphasize how technological changes can spread new ideas and norms, which in turn influence gender dynamics within households.

Keywords: Gender Dynamics, Digital and computational demography, Families, Unions and Households, Geo-referenced/geo-coded data

See extended abstract.