Economic violence: recognize it to respond

Almost fifteen years have passed since the signing of the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence – known as the Istanbul Convention – yet gender-based violence is still primarily associated with physical violence, and less frequently with psychological violence. Economic violence is much less discussed; it is a sneaky phenomenon, difficult to recognize and therefore also hard to measure, and certainly an underestimated issue. In Italy, ISTAT collects data on calls to the anti-violence helpline 1522, distinguishing between different types of abuse. Economic violence is rarely indicated as the main reason for the call (about 1% of cases), but it appears more often as a contributing factor (around 18%). Possible manifestations include scams, deprivation, control of one’s financial resources by the partner, up to total economic dependence. To study it, specific tools have been developed, such as the SEA-12¹ scale, which identifies three main areas of economic violence:

1. Economic exploitation and scams;
2. Complete control over financial resources;
3. Inducement to give up work or the search for employment.

Each area corresponds to specific behaviors which, if repeated over time, reveal the intent to limit and control the person. It is useful to recognize certain behaviors that can serve as real warning signs:

• Does they control your expenses and leave you without money, except for justified needs?
• Do they not inform you about financial decisions or the family budget?
• Do they make you sign documents that you have no way to read or understand?
• Do they discourage you from working, saying they’ll take care of everything?

It is very likely that they do not do this to protect you or take care of you, but rather to control you, because the freedom to make choices—such as ending a relationship—also depends on access to money. It is no coincidence that this form of violence often occurs during separation, when money is withdrawn from joint accounts or withheld, especially regarding child support, becoming a punitive and coercive weapon. In our country, several factors contribute to the spread of these abuses against women, including:

1. The labor market: in Italy, female participation and employment rates are among the lowest in the European Union: almost half of women do not work, and many do not have their own income. Care responsibilities are unpaid, and when employed, wages are often low, partly because women frequently work in lower-paid sectors and activities, often part-time (sometimes involuntarily), or on precarious contracts;
2. Gender stereotypes: even today, toys, studies, and professions are divided into “male” and “female” categories, reflecting distinct family roles and caregiving responsibilities predominantly assigned by default to women;
3. Low financial literacy: surveys conducted by the Bank of Italy, based on OECD indicators, show a gender gap in financial literacy levels, with women who do not work being particularly disadvantaged.²

This last circumstance—albeit, it must be said, in a context where the entire population knows little about it—makes women particularly vulnerable to the negative consequences of low financial literacy. These range from the risk of not managing their (scarce) resources effectively to unknowingly getting into debt, falling victim to scams and payment fraud, and even to delegating and trusting others to the point of suffering economic violence. The same analyses show that women tend to underestimate their own skills, even when they score above average. Insecurity and the fear of not knowing enough make them even more exposed to economic violence, where delegation and unconditional trust are a precondition.

In this context, initiatives like those of the Bank of Italy play an important role. The Bank has long been committed to promoting financial literacy among women through the course Le donne contano (“Women Count”), designed to teach the basics of personal finance and strengthen self-confidence. It is available online on the Bank of Italy’s financial education website, L’economia per tutti (“Economics for Everyone”). Awareness, training, and empowerment activities are carried out by the Bank of Italy in collaboration with key partners: women’s associations such as Soroptimist and Federcasalinghe, non-profit organizations like the National Council of Notaries, and trade unions.

To protect oneself, it is crucial to recognize early warning signs, not to neglect personal and family financial management, and to remember that controlling the wallet means controlling an individual’s autonomy. It is not always a gesture of love. Economic independence—achieved through work and the ability to manage one’s finances—makes us free to choose.

The authors of this article work at the Financial Education Service of the Bank of Italy. The opinions expressed are strictly personal and do not in any way involve the institution they belong to.

1. Postmus, J. L., Plummer, S. B., & Stylianou, A. M. (2016). Measuring economic abuse in the lives of survivors: Revising the Scale of Economic Abuse. Violence against women, 22(6), 692-703. ↩︎
2. D'Alessio, G., De Bonis, R., Neri, A. e Rampazzi, C. (2020). Financial literacy of Italians: results from the 2020 Bank of Italy survey, QEF N°588, Bank of Italy; Report Indagini sull'alfabetizzazione finanziaria e le competenze di finanza digitale in Italia: adulti, edited by di S. Lamboglia, M. Marinucci, M. Stacchini e P. Vassallo, Bank of Italy. July 2023. ↩︎