Women’s perceptions of gender-based violence in Mali

Olivia Bertelli (), Thomas Calvo (), Emmanuelle Lavallée (), Lydie Lazure, Marion Mercier () and Sandrine Mesplé-Somps ()
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Olivia Bertelli: DIAL-LEDa, UMR CNRS 8007 & IRD 260, Universite Paris-Dauphine, PSL Research University
Thomas Calvo: IRD, DIAL-LEDa, UMR CNRS 8007 & IRD 260, Universite Paris-Dauphine, PSL Research University
Emmanuelle Lavallée: DIAL-LEDa, UMR CNRS 8007 & IRD 260, Universite Paris-Dauphine, PSL Research University
Lydie Lazure: DIAL-LEDa, UMR CNRS 8007 & IRD 260, Universite Paris-Dauphine, PSL Research University
Marion Mercier: CNRS, DIAL-LEDa, UMR CNRS 8007 & IRD 260, Universite Paris-Dauphine, PSL Research University
Sandrine Mesplé-Somps: IRD, DIAL-LEDa, UMR CNRS 8007 & IRD 260, Universite Paris-Dauphine, PSL Research University

No DT/2026/07, Working Papers from DIAL (Développement, Institutions et Mondialisation)

Abstract: Gender-based violence (GBV) is widespread across the world, and Mali is one of the countries characterized by the highest prevalence rates. Following up on a paper studying men’s justifications for and perpetration of GBV in Bamako, the capital city, we elicit women’s attitudes towards early marriage, female genital mutilation (FGM) and intimate partner violence (IPV). We administer four list experiments (LEs), whose results are then compared to those of direct questions to estimate response biases. Additionally, we question women about their second-order beliefs on men and women’s attitudes towards FGM and IPV in Bamako. Our results show that women tend to misreport their attitudes towards GBV. While they declare attitudes that are less favorable to early marriage and IPV than what the LE reveals, the reverse is true as far as FGM is concerned. Women, like men (Bertelli et al., 2025), are less conservative than what they openly declare about FGM. Besides, women’s perception of the support for FGM aligns relatively well with what men and women, respectively, openly declare. The misperception of the actual prevailing attitudes towards FGM could participate in the persistence of a practice which is, in fact, much less supported than what people declare and believe.

Keywords: gender-based violence; FGM; list experiment; second-order beliefs; Mali. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I12 J12 J16 O55 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 20 pages
Date: 2026-10
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-exp
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