Abstract:
The aim of this study is to examine attitudes among married women toward wife beating and to investigate the hypothesis that female individual empowerment is associated with such attitudes within a broader context of societal patriarchy in Jordan. The study uses data from a cross-sectional survey of a representative sample of married women (n = 5,390) conducted in 2002. Associations between acceptance of wife beating and several women's empowerment variables, including decision-making power, as well as other risk factors were assessed, using odds ratios from binary logistic regression models. The key fi nding is that the vast majority (87.5percent) of Jordanian women believe that wife beating is justifi ed in at least one hypothetical scenario, and justifi cation is negatively associated with empowerment variables and some demographic, geographic, and socioeconomic factors. © 2010 Springer Publishing Company.