Abstract Our objective is to understand what do verbal and physical interactions within the couple as declared by women tell us about their related autonomy regarding sexual intercourse with their regular partner. Data were gathered thanks to a baseline KABP survey in 8 villages in Burkina Faso. Overall, 591 women aged 15 to 49 living in a stable union constitute our analysis sample. A low percentage (18.2%) of respondents declares that a woman can refuse to have sex with her partner. However, a large part (77.3%) considers this refusal as an unacceptable reason for wife beating. Multivariate logistic regression shows that the belief in a possibility to refuse sex is higher among women in polygamous union and among those who have their own resources. In contrast, disapproval of wife beating as a reaction to this refusal increases with age. It is also higher among women not denying that their partner has multiple sexual partners. Surprisingly, it is lower among women who have their own economic resources. These findings suggest that programs should work on strong beliefs, which are the result of internalization of gender roles as they may, in patriarchal societies such as Burkina Faso, facilitate acceptance of domestic violence.