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Does Knowledge Empower? Education, Legal Awareness, and Intimate Partner Violence

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  • Bilge Erten
  • Pinar Keskin

Abstract

This article exploits the rollout of the 1997 Basic Education Program in Turkey, a reform that extended compulsory school attendance, to estimate the causal effects of education on women’s awareness of laws designed to reduce gender inequality and prevent domestic violence. The study implements a regression-discontinuity design and finds that the additional years of schooling improved women’s legal awareness. Women exposed to the education reform were more likely to have heard about the new laws and services through newspapers, journals, or books. However, despite these improvements, the study finds no evidence of a significant change in the risk of women experiencing domestic violence or their ability to quit abusive relationships.HIGHLIGHTS Multiple barriers undermine women’s access to the justice system in Turkey.Education reform helped remove one such barrier: women’s legal awareness of their rights.However, legal awareness did not translate into significant changes in incidence of domestic violence.Raising awareness is a necessary first step but not enough to empower women to access to legal institutions.

Suggested Citation

  • Bilge Erten & Pinar Keskin, 2022. "Does Knowledge Empower? Education, Legal Awareness, and Intimate Partner Violence," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(4), pages 29-59, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:femeco:v:28:y:2022:i:4:p:29-59
    DOI: 10.1080/13545701.2022.2061029
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    Cited by:

    1. Mustafa Özer & Jan Fidrmuc & Mehmet Ali Eryurt, 2023. "Education and domestic violence: Evidence from a natural experiment in Turkey," Kyklos, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 76(3), pages 436-460, August.
    2. Yolanda María de la Fuente-Robles & Adrián Jesús Ricoy-Cano & María Dolores Muñoz-de-Dios & Marta García-Domingo, 2026. "Prevalence and risk factors of abuse against older adult women: A cross-sectional community study in Eastern Andalusia, Spain," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 21(5), pages 1-21, May.
    3. Andréa Renk & Clarice Manuel, 2023. "Patriarchy on the map: Women’s empowerment trajectories in Nepal’s changing social context," DeFiPP Working Papers 2304, University of Namur, Development Finance and Public Policies.
    4. Ayça Akarçay & Sezgin Polat, 2023. "Reluctance to report criminal incidents: limited access to justice, social exclusion, and gender," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 55(1), pages 145-166, February.
    5. Akyol, Pelin & Kirdar, Murat Güray, 2021. "Does Education Really Cause Domestic Violence? Revisiting the Turkish Data," IZA Discussion Papers 14735, IZA Network @ LISER.
    6. Dhamija, Gaurav & Gupta, Sagnik Kumar & Ojha, Manini, 2025. "The Protective Power of Connectivity: Internet Exposure and Intimate Partner Violence," GLO Discussion Paper Series 1690, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    7. Abhishek Yadav & Raghunathan Krishankumar & Kattur Soundarapandian Ravichandran & Fatih Ecer, 2026. "Analyzing Barriers to Discrimination Mitigation for Women's Empowerment to Achieve SDG 5–Gender Equality," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(S2), pages 757-777, March.
    8. Dércio de Assis & Arpita Ghosh & Sonia Oreffice & Climent Quintana-Domeque, 2025. "Disrupting Violence, Protecting Lives: Strangulation Laws and Intimate Partner Homicides," Discussion Papers 2501, University of Exeter, Department of Economics, revised 20 May 2026.
    9. de Assis, Dércio & Ghosh, Arpita & Oreffice, Sonia & Quintana-Domeque, Climent, 2025. "Non-Fatal Strangulation Laws and Intimate Partner Homicides," IZA Discussion Papers 18006, IZA Network @ LISER.
    10. Gulesci, Selim & Leone, Marinella & Zafar, Sameen, 2026. "Domestic violence laws and social norms: Evidence from Pakistan," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 203(C).
    11. Mavisakalyan, Astghik & Otrachshenko, Vladimir & Popova, Olga, 2024. "Natural Disasters and Acceptance of Intimate Partner Violence: The Global Evidence," IZA Discussion Papers 17172, IZA Network @ LISER.
    12. Makate, Marshall & Nyamuranga, Chamunorwa, 2024. "Changing the mindsets? Education and the intergenerational spread of tolerance for physical violence against women in Zimbabwe," Economics & Human Biology, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • J12 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Marriage; Marital Dissolution; Family Structure
    • J16 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demographic Economics - - - Economics of Gender; Non-labor Discrimination
    • I25 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Economic Development

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