Evaluating the Long-Term Impact of Gender-Based Property Tax Discounts on Female Economic Empowerment and Municipal Revenue

Recent empirical literature has focused on the social aspect of gender-based violence regarding domestic violence and physical abuse while the implications of economic empowerment in an attempt to reduce gender-based violence remain under-researched. This study investigated the connection between female economic empowerment and factors that could reduce gender-based violence in sub-Saharan African countries. We used the panel fully modified least squares estimation method to investigate the long-run implications. The gender inequality index, the female genital mutilation prevalence, and the number of female children out of school were used as proxies for gender-based violence. Likewise, economic empowerment was a proxy for female economic participation; it was replaced by female employment for the robustness test. Evidence from the panel fully modified least squares estimation showed that female economic empowerment had a negative relationship with the gender inequality index, the number of female children out of primary school, and female genital mutilation. We concluded that an increase in the economic power of females through increased economic participation could reduce gender-based violence in the long run. Based on these findings, this study recommends policies to improve the situation. This study shifts attention to the macro-connection between factors that can reduce GBV and increase female economic empowerment in selected areas of sub-Saharan Africa.

The link between economic empowerment and high risky sexual behaviour has been debated by different scholars in various settings. However, no consistently clear connection between poverty and lack of education has been found regarding engagement in risky sexual behaviour. Also, not much research has been done to examine the strength of these relationships for adolescents and women. The objectives of this study were to assess the relationship between female economic empowerment and risky sexual behaviour in Africa. Using the latest Demographic and Health Surveys Data (DHS 2011–2014) from Gabon, Mozambique, Sierra Leone and Zambia, univariate, bivariate and multivariate analysis was done on women aged 15 to 49 to examine the patterns of and differences in the association between women’s economic empowerment and risky sexual behaviour. The findings both at community and individual level indicate that empowered women (higher education and wealth household) and adolescents aged 15 to 19 are highly significantly associated with engagement in high risky behaviour. The result of this study stresses the need to look further than individual factors in the quest to resolve risky sexual behaviour in Africa. The interrelations between female economic empowerment and engagement in risky sexual behaviour are more complicated and less straightforward than usually presumed.

Historically, vector control, including entomological monitoring, has been a field dominated by men. Each year, the U.S. President's Malaria Initiative (PMI) VectorLink project hires 50,000 to 70,000 seasonal workers across the countries in which it works to implement vector control activities, creating an economic opportunity for both men and women. Remaining barriers to women's employment in vector control include social and cultural norms regarding acceptability of formal employment for women, perceptions that women are not fit to serve as spray operators, and a historical context of male-dominated fields such as entomology. We use PMI VectorLink project data from Madagascar, Rwanda, and Zambia for 2019-2021 and key informant interviews with project staff in these countries to examine levels of female employment, effectiveness and efficiency of female versus male malaria spray operators, and strategies to expand the role of women in vector control. The percentage of female seasonal employees ranges from 25% in Madagascar to 32% in Rwanda and 45% in Zambia. The percentage of women in leadership positions ranges from 32% in Madagascar and Rwanda to 38% in Zambia. Men and women are equally effective and efficient as spray operators. Best practices for recruiting and retaining women in vector control include engaging community leaders in recruitment, implementing affirmative action hiring policies, mentoring women to progress to leadership positions, and ensuring equitable, safe, and attractive workplaces. As vector control programs transition away from donor funding and are increasingly government led, sustaining gains in female empowerment is critical. Country programs should work closely with national, regional, district, and local leaders to demonstrate the importance of hiring women in vector control-including leadership positions-and the impact on female economic empowerment, community well-being, and success of vector control programs.

Background and statement of the problem: There is sufficient evidence to say that female empowerment affects economic and social outcomes, in particular for girls. There is, however, no unified approach to the measurement of female empowerment. The relative economic position of the two spouses, which in turn may reflect the position of the extended families on both sides, may affect the woman’s influence on household decisions. And both economic empowerment and the woman’s decision-making power will depend on social norms, which in turn vary between and within societies. Research is still needed to understand these complex relations between economic empowerment, female decision-making power, social norms, and economic and social outcomes. Research methodology and data: The relative land ownership of the paternal and maternal sides of the extended family was used as a measure of female economic empowerment, and the measure was, in turn, used as an instrument for female decision-making power within the family. The latter was measured by DHS-type questions on who make important decisions within the family. In the second stage of the instrumental variable (IV) estimation it was investigated whether the general measure of decision making power affected a particular outcome, children’s education. Data was collected in an ethnically diverse area of the eastern plains of Nepal, where 480 women were surveyed. Research findings: The findings indicate that economic empowerment and subjective decision-making power have independent effects on children’s education. The relations are quite complex, indicating that one should not automatically use economic empowerment as the ultimate measure of female empowerment. In the present context there is a positive association between female empowerment and children’s education for both genders, whereas boys are prioritized if the paternal side of the family is economically weak. Furthermore, there is heterogeneity among social groups with respect to the importance men and women assign different levels of education for children of different genders. The main message is that the mother’s relative bargaining power matters in different ways – and through different mechanisms – and depends on the gender of the child, the social group and the level of education. Policy implications: Policies for female empowerment need to be tailor-made to specific societies and social groups. The findings indicate that policies for economic empowerment of women, such as education and entrepreneurship programs, may have to be combined with programs that affect social values and norms if the target is to change intrahousehold decisions.

PurposeThe issue of female economic empowerment in the Middle East and the North Africa region (MENA) has attracted significant attention; however, its potential in the tourism sector has not been fully explored. This study aims to identify the steps involved in conceptualizing, designing, and conducting a customized tourism training program to economically empower women in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).Design/methodology/approachGrounded in stakeholder theory and using a triangulation method of data analysis, the study is an outcome of mixed-method research. The data were collected through focus group interviews, personal interviews and a survey involving women stakeholders from public and private sectors.FindingsThe study revealed that the desired components for tourist guide training among Emirati women include career paths, ways to seek support from family, entrepreneurial and leadership skills development, and destination knowledge.Originality/valueThe study provides theoretical and practical implications for a systematic training approach undertaken by a destination management organization (DMO) in liaison with other stakeholders. The study recommends a series of phases to scientifically design and conduct tourism training in order to empower women.

We integrate the resource dependence and institutional economics theories to theorize and test the global drivers of female board representation on corporate boards. We examine both female board percentage (inclusiveness) and female board turnover (sustainability). Using a longitudinal panel dataset of 1071 firms across 42 countries over a 10-year period (2004 to 2013) and qualitative interviews of 25 female board members from 4 countries, we find support for our predictions. The resource dependence variable of female economic empowerment (female education and employment levels in a country) related positively to female board percentage and negatively to female board turnover. However, the institutional economics variable of female board legislative quotas related positively to both female board percentage and turnover. We also found that female economic empowerment and female board legislative quotas interacted positively and reinforced each other’s effects in predicting female board percentage but did not interact in influencing female board turnover. The qualitative interviews shed light on the underlying mechanisms of these relationships as prescribed in the two theories. Our study illuminates the importance of utilizing a multi-theoretic approach in explaining the global nature of the female board representation phenomenon.

Gender inequality remains one of the most pressing socio-economic challenge in South Africa despite the presence of policy initiatives that target women for empowerment. The lack of consensus in the literature of a reliable and consistent measurement instrument of gender equality also makes it difficult to quantify and analyze female empowerment issues. The objective of the study was to estimate a measure for female empowerment, Gender Status Index, for South Africa and then use the index to analyze the relationship between entrepreneurship, economic growth and female empowerment. Using annual data from 1991 to 2017, an ARDL model of female empowerment (GSI), female entrepreneurship (Total female Self-Employment) and economic growth (Real GDP growth) was estimated. The study found that entrepreneurship has a positive impact on economic empowerment but no significant relationship on political and social empowerment. The study recommends more entrepreneurship institutions for female economic empowerment and ongoing policies initiatives that are more direct toward supporting female empowerment.

Few papers about Central Asia explore the economic effects of abortion on women. This econometric paper the objective is to assess whether abortions in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan are associated with women’s economic empowerment. The study finds that when abortions increase, measures of female relative income decrease, in both simple correlations and Ordinary Least Squares regressions. The annual series for 2002-2022 and comparable aggregates for the two countries are used (a total of 32 observations on key variables), where the gender pay gap is defined as the ratio of the average incomes of women to the incomes of men. This implied that Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan had different permanent institutions, such as the labor market. Instrumental-variable analysis, which controls for the impact of the model itself on abortion estimates, showed that a rise of one abortion per 1,000 live births led to a 2% decrease in the female-to-male ratio of average income. The descriptive part reveals a stable negative relationship between abortions and women's relative income: for the 2011-2022 subsample in Kazakhstan, the simple correlation is about -0.63 (statistically significant), which is consistent with the “constraints” hypothesis. The paper concludes that female economic empowerment in Central Asia may depend more on institutions and social structures than on individuals’ short-term reproductive decisions, such as whether to have an abortion. The findings contradict the theory that abortion empowers women economically by freeing them from raising children so that they can pursue education and careers.

abstractPat Horn is the founding International Coordinator and current Senior Advisor at StreetNet, an International Alliance of Street Vendors. Her career has centered on organising disempowered individuals into unions and alliances where collectively they have a more powerful voice. As a student activist, adult literacy advocate and trade unionist in the 1970s and 1980s she fought for the rights of South Africans discriminated against under the apartheid regime. During her time in the trade unions she actively worked towards female economic empowerment and became increasingly aware of the plight of the vast number of women working in the informal economy. By forging links with SEWA (the Self-Employed Women’s Association) in India, she established the first trade union for self-employed women (SEWU) in South Africa in 1993. Her association with SEWA lead to her becoming the first International Coordinator for StreetNet, an international alliance formed to improve the lives of street vendors, market vendors and hawkers (the majority of whom are women), around the world. She is in conversation with Michelle Hatch, an academic economist and single mother, whose doctoral thesis explored how motherhood and childcare responsibilities affect the socioeconomic and subjective well-being of women in South Africa.

This article highlights the political consequences of financial measures in post-conflict economy formation processes. It focuses on how microfinance for women in Bosnia and Herzegovina, even when considered successful, affects women’s agency, what forms of female subjectivities emerge and what forms become excluded or reinforced as a result. Juxtaposing the two goals of microfinance for women – improved family welfare and gender equality – and the consequences, it shows how neoliberal discourses on female economic empowerment through microfinance in the context of a disappearing welfare state may enable limited individual agency within the household, while circumscribing women’s agency in the public domain.

More recently, there has been increasing recognition of gender perspective to achieve economic growth and sustainable development. Although the nexus between gender equality and economic growth has enjoyed sizeable consideration in the literature, empirical evaluation of the economic growth effect of female economic participation is few. Hence, this study seeks to examine the relationship between female economic participation and the economic growth process of the sub-Saharan African region. In particular, the study tests whether there is an economic growth premium due to female participation in economic activities using data for a sample of 35 sub-Saharan African economies. Employing the Prais-Winsten regression, the findings suggest the existence of a significant positive effect of female economic participation on economic growth in the region. Specifically, a per cent increase in female employment rate and female labour force participation leads to a 0.028 per cent and 0.021 per cent increase in economic growth. Also, the share of working population, domestic credit to the private sector and urbanization rate are positively correlated with economic growth during the study period. The findings imply that female economic empowerment is important for achieving economic growth in the region; hence empowerment of women and girls should be made focal in national and regional development plans as stipulated in goal 5 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) plan.

Energy access and female labor force participation in developing countries

Backlash: Female Economic Empowerment and Domestic Violence

The access and utilization of Maternal Health Services (MHS) is partly influenced by the cost and the level of income of a pregnant woman. This study assessed the association between women's income levels and the use of MHS as measured the number of antenatal care visits and the place of delivery using the Anderson health care utilization model as the theoretical framework. A secondary data analysis of 31,985 women in the reproductive age (15-49years) was conducted using Pearson Chi and Multiple Logistic Regressions. Income was significantly associated with both the frequency of antenatal care visits (Adjusted OR=3.056; CI 2.625-3.567; p<0.0001) and the place of delivery (Adjusted OR=13.245; CI 7.255-24.180) even after controlling for confounders such as education, availability of skilled health worker, religion, distance, and age. The finding has provided information that might influence policy makers and health managers on the need for inter-sectorial collaboration with stakeholders at community, state and national levels towards a holistic multi-prong intervention.

This research sheds light on radio’s role in advancing women economic empowerment in Bogije – a rural semi-urban settlement in the outskirt of Lagos Island. Deploying qualitative approaches to research often known as interviews, the research concludes that although observable efforts have been invested in spotlighting most issues around female empowerment – precisely economic empowerment through media formats such as drama, sensitization and orientation on government aids and skills acquisition programmes, talk shows, interviews with government personnels, coverage of NGO activities on this issue, primarily, much is yet to be done about radio’s reach and other deep rooted issues which limits radio’s ability to properly deliver on its key responsibilities. The paper arrives at a position which presents a need to deal with the root causes limiting radio’s ability to function properly on this subject of focus. It further sheds light on the need for women’s economic empowerment to be taken more seriously as is done on health empowerment. It stretches across a need to monitor how women are discussed on air as they are sometimes presented as needy, helpless and desperate humans in need of rescue and empowerment which further dampens feminist goals and aims of proper female representation and empowerment. Ultimately, the paper acknowledges radio’s efforts at playing a vital role in female’s economic empowerment in Bogije while it calls for loopholes to be sealed and more efforts invested as much is yet to be done in achieving women’s economic empowerment in Bogije, Ibeju Lekki, Lagos. Keyword: Female empowerment, women economic empowerment, women and media, radio and female empowerment, Bogije DOI: 10.7176/JRDM/75-06 Publication date: May 31 st 2021