Electric field-induced change of magnetic properties in ferromagnetic Fe thin film grown on a ferroelectric BaTiO₃ (BTO) substrate is studied by means of x-ray absorption spectroscopy. We find that a few nm Fe oxide layer exists at the Fe/BTO interface when the Fe thickness is 8 nm, in which the film shows in-plane magnetization. The x-ray magnetic circular dichroism analysis reveals that the coercive field, H_c, of Fe shows a hysteresis behavior as a function of the electric field, and larger H_c is observed at ∼ ±3 kV/cm. On the other hand, it is found from the extended x-ray absorption fine structure analysis that the Fe-O bond distance shows a similar electric field dependence to that of H_c, and shorter distance is observed at ∼ ±3 kV/cm. Therefore, it is assumed that the H_c strongly depends on the ferroelectric domain structure of BTO, and larger H_c is observed for the multi-domain structure. We suppose that shrinking of the Fe–O distance caused by the domain formation leads to an enhancement of H_c due to the island-like localization of the interface Fe oxide. [DOI: 10.1380/ejssnt.2015.139]