Hypothesis
Women with more individual resources (such as education, work or assets) would be protected against intimate partner violence.
What failed
In DHS data on 580,000 women across 30 sub-Saharan African countries, individual resources showed no protective association with abuse, although they were linked to lower acceptance of it. Resource inequality was associated with more abuse, and employed women faced higher risk in communities that accepted wife-beating more.
Broken assumption
Giving a woman more resources raises her bargaining power enough to protect her from partner violence.
Why
The authors point to community attitudes: where wife-beating is more accepted, women's employment goes with greater risk, so individual resources do not translate into protection.
From the published paper: Cools et al. World Development, 2017. ↗CC BY