In 1979 Ellsberg moved to Nicaragua to work for peace and social justice, and she lived there for almost 20 years. During this time she participated in the Nicaraguan Literacy Campaign and worked with vaccination and health consultation programs on the Caribbean coast for the Nicaragua Department of Health. Subsequently, in 1995 she did a prevalence study on domestic violence in Nicaragua, finding that 50% of women had been beaten or raped by her partner. This study was used to pass the country's first domestic violence law in 1996. In 2000, she defended her Ph.D. thesis at Umeå University on domestic violence in Nicaragua. After moving back to the United States, she has continued to conduct domestic violence research in Nicaragua.
Ellsberg has studied domestic violence against women around the world, including Nicaragua, Melanesia, and South Sudan. She was a member of the core research team of the World Health Organization's Multi-Country Study on Domestic Violence and Women's Heath, which has compared ten different countries in terms of prevalence, risk factors and consequences of intimate partner violence.
Selected publications
Ellsberg M, Caldera T, Herrera A, Winkvist A, Kullgren G. Domestic violence and emotional distress among Nicaraguan women: Results from a population-based study. American Psychologist. 1999 Jan;54:30.
Ellsberg MC, Pena R, Herrera A, Liljestrand J, Winkvist A. Wife abuse among women of childbearing age in Nicaragua. American journal of public health. 1999 Feb;89:241-4.
Ellsberg M, Peña R, Herrera A, Liljestrand J, Winkvist A. Candies in hell: women’s experiences of violence in Nicaragua. Social science & medicine. 2000 Dec 1;51:1595-610.
Ellsberg M, Heise L, Pena R, Agurto S, Winkvist A. Researching domestic violence against women: methodological and ethical considerations. Studies in family planning. 2001 Mar;32:1-6.
Garcia-Moreno C, Jansen HA, Ellsberg M, Heise L, Watts CH. Prevalence of intimate partner violence: findings from the WHO multi-country study on women's health and domestic violence. The Lancet. 2006 Oct 7;368:1260-9.
Ellsberg M, Jansen HA, Heise L, Watts CH, Garcia-Moreno C. Intimate partner violence and women's physical and mental health in the WHO multi-country study on women's health and domestic violence: an observational study. The Lancet. 2008 Apr 5;371:1165-72.
Abramsky T, Watts CH, Garcia-Moreno C, Devries K, Kiss L, Ellsberg M, Jansen HA, Heise L. What factors are associated with recent intimate partner violence? Findings from the WHO multi-country study on women's health and domestic violence. BMC public health. 2011 Dec;11:109.
Ellsberg M, Arango DJ, Morton M, Gennari F, Kiplesund S, Contreras M, Watts C. Prevention of violence against women and girls: what does the evidence say?. The Lancet. 2015 Apr 18;385:1555-66.
Ellsberg M, Contreras M, , Global Women's Institute, 2017
Ellsberg M, Ugarte W, Ovince J, et al. Long-term change in the prevalence of intimate partner violence: a 20-year follow-up study in León, Nicaragua, 1995-2016. BMJ Global Health 2020;5:e002339. doi:10.1136/bmjgh-2020-002339
