Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a huge public health, development and human rights issue worldwide. Despite the fact that working women in patriarchal contexts commonly report higher level of IPV, literature on this subject is still scanty. This paper assessed the magnitude of different types of IPV against female garment workers and identified its correlates using cross-sectional survey data collected during September-December, 2016 from 800 female garment workers randomly selected from lists provided by eight garment factories in and around Dhaka, Bangladesh. The results reveal high levels of IPV experienced by the workers (physical = 34%; sexual = 43%; economic = 35%, last 12 months). Logistic regression results were nuanced. While the worker’s ability to mobilize resources in crises reduced IPV, her savings beyond a threshold increased its likelihood. Moreover, her ownership of jewellery/ large household assets increased the likelihood of IPV. Having moderately or highly controlling husband, substance abuse by husband and his involvement in extramarital sex predicted IPV. Although the worker’s education up to 6 years or more was protective, education more than the husband increased the likelihood of IPV. Young age, having two or more children, experience of non-partner sexual violence and high acceptance of IPV increased the likelihood of IPV. Middle income group protected against IPV, while household food insecurity increased its likelihood. Work at a factory in the Export Processing Zone protected against IPV. The findings indicate that financial empowerment alone is not sufficient to protect the workers from IPV; interventions that combine gender empowerment training for workers in the context of better factory working conditions may be useful in reducing IPV; working with men is essential in this endeavour.

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BackgroundWomen in Bangladesh experience high rates of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV). IPV is more prevalent against income earning women compared to their non-earning counterparts, and Workplace Violence (WPV) is also common. Such violence is a violation of women’s rights, and also constrains them from contributing to their personal growth, household, community and the economy at large. There is limited evidence on what works to prevent IPV and WPV amongst garment workers. This paper describes an evaluation of HERrespect, an intervention which aims to reduce IPV and WPV against female garment workers in and around Dhaka, Bangladesh.MethodsThe trial employs a quasi-experimental design, with four intervention and four control factories. In the intervention factories a randomly selected cohort of married female line workers, a cohort of male line workers, and all middle management staff received the intervention. The intervention strategies involved (1) gender transformative group-based training for workers and management staff; (2) joint session between workers (15 female and male) and middle-management staff; (3) factory-wide activities; (4) awareness raising among top management; (5) factory policy review and development and 6) a community based campaign. For the evaluation, a cohort of randomly selected female workers and a cohort of selected management staff have been established. All workers (n = 800) and management staff (n = 395) from these cohorts were interviewed at baseline using two different questionnaires, and will be interviewed in the endline, 24 months post-baseline. Intention to treat analysis will be used for assessing the impact of HERrespect, comparing the intervention and control factories.DiscussionTo our knowledge this is the first study that seeks to evaluate the impact on IPV and WPV, of group sessions with female workers, male workers, and management; factory-wide campaigns and a community intervention among female garment workers in Bangladesh. Apart from informing programmers and policy makers about intervention effectiveness in reducing IPV and WPV against female garment workers this study will also present evidence on an intervention tailored to the situation in the garment sector, which makes HERrespect scalable.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov NCT03304015, retrospectively registered on October 06, 2017.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12889-018-5442-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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This paper assessed the magnitude of different types of intimate partner violence (IPV) and identified the correlates of IPV using cross-sectional survey data collected during September-December, 2016 from 800 female garment workers randomly selected from lists provided by eight garment factories in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The results reveal high levels of IPV experienced by the workers (physical=34%; sexual=43%; economic=35%, last 12 months). Logistic regression analyses show while 6 years or higher education reduced the likelihood of IPV, young age, having two or more children and education equal to or more than husband increased its likelihood. Financial factors such as ownership of savings and jewellery/household assets increased IPV likelihood, while ability of the worker to mobile resources in crisis reduced it. Middle income group also protected against economic IPV, while household food insecurity increased IPV likelihood. High acceptance of IPV and experience of non-partner sexual violence of the worker increased likelihood of IPV. Having a highly or moderately highly controlling husband predicted different types of IPV. Husband’s substance abuse and extramarital sex also predicted IPV. Work at a factory in the Export Processing Zone protected against IPV.The findings indicate that financial empowerment alone is not sufficient to protect workers from IPV. They support interventions that combine gender empowerment training for workers in the context of better factory working conditions. They also suggest that interventions would be more effective if working with men is included as a programme component.