CSU Grad Slam Winner Finds That Femicide Decreases When Female Empowerment Increases

Lydia Durunguma, ’25 MA Applied Economics, presented her research at the 2025 Grad Slam at SJSU, as well as the CSU Three Minute Thesis Competition. Photo: Robert C. Bain.

Clad in a smart black suit, Lydia Durunguma, ’25 MA Applied Economics, faced the audience at SJSU’s Hammer Theatre to deliver some eye-opening findings. She began her San José State Grad Slam presentation with a painful declaration. 

“There is a condition that more than half the world’s population is born with, one that makes you more likely to be killed,” she said. “It’s not some disease, yet every 10 minutes, it claims a life. I was born with this condition. Many of you in this room were, too. And some, though not born with it, will still face its side effects because of their identity. This condition? It’s the XX chromosome. Yes, the simple complication of being female can be a death sentence.”

Duruguma’s presentation earned her second place at the SJSU Grad Slam in April, securing her a spot in the 2025 CSU Grad Slam: Three-Minute Thesis Competition hosted by CSU San Bernardino the following month— which she won. The competition offered her the chance to demonstrate the potentially life-saving applications of economics.

Growing up in Nigeria, Durunguma was acutely aware of the high rates of femicide — the murder of women and girls because of their gender — often as a result of domestic violence. 

“I heard stories of femicide, and knew the personal experiences of people who knew victims of it,” she remembers. “So it’s a subject that is really personal to me. Intuitively, it makes sense that if you have the resources to get up and leave a [bad] situation, it makes getting up and leaving easier. But if your well-being, your livelihood, is tied to the person who is abusing you, it’s not easy. You’re less likely to leave.”

Durunguma’s research was prompted in part by a 2023 paper by University of Nigeria researcher Adaobiagu Nnemdi Obiagu entitled “Do Women’s Education and Economic Empowerment Reduce Gender-based Violence in Nigeria?”

“Interestingly enough, [the 2023 study] showed that when women did better economically, it made them worse off [in some of their domestic relationships],” Durunguma says. “Maybe this suggests that the abusers don’t want the women they abuse to appear ‘better off’ than they are. But when I did the same study in the U.S., I found a different correlation.” 

With the support of her faculty mentors in the Spartan Experimental Economics Lab, Durunguma created a statistical model to test for correlations between various factors, including the American rates of femicide and the numbers of women in the workforce. She ran the model through a software program to evaluate 32 years of economic data alongside femicide rates using regression analysis, a set of statistical methods used for the estimation of relationships between a dependent variable and one or more independent variables. 

The result? She discovered that in the U.S., when 1% more women are gainfully employed, there are 0.43% fewer femicides nationwide — equivalent to 225 deaths a year. In her words: “No small drop.”

The implications of Durunguma’s research extends beyond employment. She places equal importance on paid maternity and paternity leave, affordable childcare and the gender pay gap.

Lydia Durunguma at the SJSU Grad Slam. Photo: Robert C. Bain.

Associate Professor of Economics Aidin Hajikhameneh, who codirects the Spartan Experimental Economics Lab (SEEL) at SJSU, shares his admiration for Durunguma’s insightful approach to applied economics. He describes how she explored economic questions through the lens of gender, culture and tradition.

“Lydia is a thoughtful and perceptive student whose work reflects a strong engagement with both economic theory and cultural context,” he says. “In her paper for Econ-297, Experimental Methods in Economics, she examined how gender norms and cultural traditions influence the investment practices of northern Nigerian women, focusing on the use of gold as a vehicle for intergenerational wealth transfer. Her analysis was well-researched and carefully reasoned, offering a nuanced perspective on how economic behavior can persist across migration and time.”

By the time Durunguma accepted her diploma at SJSU commencement in May, she’d already been offered a job with BDO, an accounting and business services firm. Though she’s eager to hit the ground running, she still intends to pursue a PhD in economics someday, with the goal of becoming a professor. She’s most interested in exploring the various ways economics plays a role in the choices people make, providing valuable data to policymakers, legislators and community advocates.

“It goes beyond telling women to ‘get jobs,’” she says. “I want to put the urgency in the minds of people who make decisions that trickle down and affect women’s autonomy, whether that’s hiring women or providing affordable childcare or paid parental leave. There are lives at stake.” 

Learn more about the SJSU Grad Slam.