Determinants of Women Economic Empowerment in Northwestern Ethiopia

Abstract

Women empowerment is one of the most important things that have been discussed in developing countries. Women’s not economically empowered is one of the serious problems facing Ethiopia. The problem is high in Ethiopia in general, Legambo District in particular. However, the determinants of women's economic empowerment in the District are not yet assessed. In light of this problem, the objective of this study is to identify the determinants of women's economic empowerment. To realize the objective, primary and secondary data sources were used. Primary data were collected by key informants and semi-structured interviews of 278 married women randomly selected in four kebeles of Legambo district. The researchers employed both descriptive and inferential analysis such as simple frequencies, cross tabulation, and binary logistic regression model. The study found that 55.76 % of the respondents were not empowered while 44.24 of them were economically empowered at the time of the survey. And based on the binary Logit model, variables such as age in marriage, access to the media, information seeking behavior, community participation, positive husband's education level and current place of living were significant negative determinants of women's economic empowerment in Legambo district. Based on the findings of the study, it recommends that governments and concerned bodies of the country should intervene in order to improve women's economic empowerment, to improve women's access to information and participation in different development programs done in most practical or on the ground than theoretical or set only as strategic level. Key w ords: Determinants, Economic Empowerment, Ethiopia, Legambo, Women. DOI: 10.7176/JESD/13-5-04 Publication date: March 31 st 2022