Abstract:
Despite its prevalence, intimate partner economic abuse has received less
scholarly attention in sub-Saharan Africa. Using qualitative enquiry, this
study describes the experiences of economic abuse among 18 women in
the Eastern Region of Ghana. Economic abuse occurred in a variety of
forms, including extortion, denial of income-earning activity, and attempts
to deny women’s economic independence and financial self-sufficiency.
Findings point to the pervasiveness of economic abuse among both highand
low-income women. While economic dependency among nonworking
women was associated with sexual violence, working and independent
women experienced physical and emotional violence on questioning
intimate partner’s economic abuse.