http://www.forbes.com/sites/meghancasserly/2012/11/30/i-only-hit-you-because-you-have-a-job-working-women-and-domestic-violence/

I Only Hit You Because You Have A Job: Working Women And Domestic Violence

 More fodder for the Suzanne Venkers of the world this week: according to a new piece of research, women who work face a greater risk of violence at the hands of their romantic partners than women who don’t, lending credence to the notion that female employment threatens men’s authority in relationship dynamics.

The study, conducted by two female researchers at Sam Houston State University in Texas (and supported by the university’s Crime Victim’s Institute) looked at the impact that education levels and employment status differences play in domestic or intimate partner violence in heterosɛҳuąƖ couples and found that dual-incomed households were more than twice as likely to .

“When both male and females were employed, the odds of victimization were more than two times higher than when the male was the only breadwinner in the partnership, lending support to the idea that female employment may challenge male authority and power in a relationship,” said Franklin and Menaker in a press release.
 
Through telephone interviews with 303 women between the ages of 18 and 81 who self-identified as either currently or recently being involved in a serious relationship, Cortney Franklin, Ph.D. and Tasha Menaker of Sam Houston State found that more than 60% of women in heterosɛҳuąƖ working couples reported victimization, while only 30% of women reported victimization in cases when only the male partner was employed. Reported abuses included having something thrown at them; being pushed, grabbed or shoved; slapped, hit, kicked or bitten; or threatened with a gun or knife.

While the findings are troubling—and definitely surprising—the explanation provided by Franklin and Menaker on the safety of home-bound women versus those in the workforce is even more so, particularly in the wake of Suzanne Venker’s FOX piece this week blaming a cohort of angry men on women’s loss of femininity as they enter the workplace.

“When women are home-bound through their role as domestic workers, they lack connections to co-workers and the social capital that is produced through those connections, in addition to wages, job prestige, resources, and thus, power. In turn, they must rely solely on their male partner for financial sustenance and can benefit from the distinction that his employment brings the couple. Those women who work outside the home have access to these tangible and intangible assets, which may devalue or, in some cases, even undermine the contributions and provisions supplied by male-only employment.”

In other words, when women work, in pursuing wages, prestige and power or developing relationships outside the home, they undermine their partners, resulting in violence. I’m not prepared to accept the characterization of men as so base that they resort to violence when undermined or even emasculated by their partners, but according to this research, there does appear to be a link.

“Among those dual-employment households in which violence was present, we speculate that men responded with violence because they may have perceived threats to their status as ‘providers,’” says Franklin, an explanation based on research on the psychology of men, women and relationship dynamics, not quantitative data. “This finding is certainly troubling, but we hope that bringing this issue to light encourages further exploration of the specific causes of male violence against women.”

To be clear, Franklin and Menaker are in no way encouraging women to leave the workplace to stay safe, nor does it echoes Venker’s premise that women should return to their feminine, docile ways to improve their relationships. Instead, the veteran professor of women’s issues and self-described feminist scholar hopes to use this research to bring attention to the resistance that women face in the employment arena—both in the workplace and at home.

Readers: This is some surprising research. Despite the survey pool being particularly small there does seem to be a clear link between women in the workforce and domestic violence. I invite you to read the full report and am interested in your thoughts. Hope to hear from you in the comments.

Well, working women are often insufferable feminists.  Whether this relationship between women working is one of correlation of causation or both will depend on each case, but of course women working outside the home causes men's authority to be challenged in "relationship dynamics" -- girls in the public world of business are in the province of men and expect to be respected for it.  Surely that engagement cannot help them to think and behave like naturally virtuous and feminine women; how, then, is any self-respecting man supposed to keep the proper balance in the relationship ?  The problem is intractable as long as women try to do men's things and weak men encourage them to so harm themselves.