The United Nations Population Fund reports that in Zimbabwe, 1 in 3 women age 15 to 49 have experienced physical violence and about 1 in 4 women have experienced sexual violence. UN Women reports that 35% of women in Zimbabwe have experienced physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence. The Zimbabwe National Statistic Office reports that from 2010 to 2016 there was a 42% increase in rape cases—at least 21 people being raped every day. They also report that 78% of women who have experienced violence claim it was at the hand of their husband or partner.

All of these numbers are likely low considering that many women don’t report domestic or sexual violence. The ongoing prevalence of child marriage in Zimbabwe and the country’s economic crisis don’t help matters.

Indeed, violence against women and domestic violence is unfortunately still a problem across the globe. Though there are many factors that enable this pattern to continue, we’ve identified one that we are working to rectify: The financial disempowerment of women.

When women don’t have the opportunity to be financially self-sufficient, it’s easier for them to get stuck in relationships that are abusive. According to Oxfam America, the financial empowerment of women can also “increase women’s household bargaining power and ability to leave a violent relationship,” and decrease household poverty, which in turn can relieve the factors contributing to domestic violence. And though how much money women earn shouldn’t determine how much they are respected by their partner, increased income can indeed lead to added respect and subsequently less domestic violence.

One of our microloan beneficiaries.

And on a community level, Oxfam reports, women’s economic empowerment can help change the attitudes that perpetuate patterns of domestic violence, and reduce the acceptance of domestic violence. 

The relationship between women’s empowerment and domestic violence shifts based on cultural factors in any given area. And there is much more than financial disempowerment perpetuating violence against women. But we believe that the focused work that we do—providing women in rural Zimbabwe and Chile with microloans to fund their own businesses—chips away at domestic violence, one microloan at a time.