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Energy poverty, women's empowerment and intimate partner violence: Evidence of a backlash effect in sub-Saharan Africa
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A
DOI：10.1016/j.erss.2026.104909.png)
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Abstract
En 中文
Access to modern energy services is widely recognised as essential for economic development and human well-being. However, despite abundant evidence on the economic, health and environmental consequences of energy poverty, its implications for intra-household violence and the conditions under which women's empowerment influences this relationship remain largely unknown. This study examines the link between household energy poverty and intimate partner violence (IPV) in sub-Saharan Africa, investigating whether this relationship varies with women's empowerment. The analysis uses harmonised Demographic and Health Survey data (DHS) from Cameroon, Kenya and Nigeria. Household energy poverty is measured using the Multidimensional Energy Poverty Index, and survey-weighted logistic regression models with country-survey fixed effects estimate the relationship. To address potential endogeneity, the baseline estimates are complemented with a leave-one-out instrumental variable approach and extensive robustness and heterogeneity analyses. The results reveal that women living in energy-poor households are significantly more likely to experience IPV. Moreover, this association strengthens as women become more empowered, suggesting that severe energy deprivation may trigger a backlash effect that weakens empowerment's protective role. These findings remain robust across alternative measures of energy poverty, different forms of violence, and instrumental-variable estimation, and are particularly pronounced in urban areas. By identifying IPV as an overlooked social consequence of energy poverty, this study broadens the literature beyond its traditional focus on economic, health and environmental outcomes. The findings suggest that expanding modern energy access should be accompanied by violence prevention strategies and interventions promoting equitable gender norms.
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