In This Story
On-going research from Jhumka Gupta, ScD, associate professor in the Department of Global and Community, focuses on addressing structural and social factors to stop interpersonal violence.
Jhumka Gupta's pioneering work focuses on the powerful role of addressing structural and social factors, such as gender inequity in reducing violence against women and girls. Intimate partner violence (IPV), particularly in communities affected by migration, conflict and forced displacement outside and within the United States. Her research emphasizes that while economic interventions can increase women’s financial autonomy, these programs must also address deep-rooted gender inequities that disfavor women and girls to effectively curb violence against women.
A key example of this approach is her partnership with the International Rescue Committee (a global humanitarian aid organization) in evaluating the EA$E (Economic and Social Empowerment) intervention in rural Côte d’Ivoire, which paired economic empowerment programs with gender equity training. The study, involving nearly 1,000 participants, demonstrated significant reductions in both physical and economic IPV. By addressing the societal drivers of violence—such as inequitable gender norms—alongside economic empowerment, EA$E offered a holistic public health approach to preventing IPV. This model has been implemented in 16 countries and has been recognized by the World Health Organization.
Building on this success, Gupta integrated her work outside of the US with her longstanding partnerships with US-based immigrant and refugee communities. In collaboration with the International Rescue Committee and funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, she is adapting the EA$E intervention for use with US-based immigrant and refugee communities. While research on IPV prevention interventions has grown substantially in the Global South, there has been less work on research interventions aiming to prevent IPV among immigrants and refugees in the US and other higher income countries. Gupta’s project exemplifies bidirectional learning, where lessons from the Global South are applied to address challenges in higher-income countries, further demonstrating the global relevance of Gupta's work and consistent with her lens as a daughter of immigrant and refugee parents. She is also leading a new project in Liberia seeking to investigate the impact of combining gender equity training with economic empowerment to shift harmful gender norms in Liberia.
Gupta’s research highlights the importance of centering structural gender inequities that harm women and girls in addressing violence against women and girls. She also underscores the importance of cultivating partnerships with communities to advance public health prevention through co-development and learning. Her work is transforming communities by fostering resilience, reducing violence, and creating more equitable futures for women and their communities globally, within and outside of the US.