Study finds women earning more than male partners more likely to be subjected to domestic violence

Women earning more than their male partners are more likely to fall victim to physical and sexual violence at home.

Men are more likely to be physically or sexually violent towards female partners who earn more than them, a groundbreaking study has found.

In what is seen as a “male backlash”, female breadwinners are 35 per cent more likely to be assaulted, analysis by the Australian National University of more than 24,000 Australian adults has found.

Women who earn more than their male partners are also 20 per cent more likely to suffer emotional abuse, according to the research, by Dr Yinjunjie Zhang and Professor Robert Breunig, of the Crawford School of Public Policy.

They found women who earn more than 50 per cent of the household income are between 31 and 35 per cent more likely to experience partner violence.

The findings hold regardless of age, income, education or cultural background.

There was no evidence of physical and emotional abuse of men by women as women’s income increased.

Men are more likely to be physically or sexually violent towards female partners who earn more than them.

Prof Breunig said the findings were “further evidence for Australia that couples are reticent to violate the gender norm of male breadwinning”.

“As a woman’s economic position improves, there might be an assumption that she would get a better deal at home but we didn’t find that,” he said. “People are very comfortable with male breadwinning — dad makes more money, mum looks after the kids. So when the opposite happens it can destabilise the relationship and cause a male backlash.”

He said the finding was “striking and statistically very strong”. The research paper notes a “surprising number of women who think that men earning more than women causes trouble. In Australia, 32 per cent of women agree with the statement: ‘If a woman earns more than her husband, it’s almost certain to cause a problem’.”

Prof Breunig said “when women do make more money, there are other consequences as well: they often do more housework and divorce is more likely”.

He said it appeared abuse occurred once or twice and that women who endured repeated abuse left the relationships because they had the financial means.

The findings suggested family gender roles were slower to evolve than workplace gender roles, which have given women greater economic power in recent years, he said.

More needed to be done to “give women the agency to leave abusive relationships”, Professor Breunig said.

The analysis drew on the Personal Safety Survey administered by the ABS.

The findings come as data from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare shows one in six women has experienced physical and/or sexual violence, and one in four has experienced emotional abuse by a partner. One in 16 men experience partner violence and one in six emotional abuse.