Abstract
SummaryBackgroundThe Sustainable Development Goals strongly focus on equity. Goal 5 explicitly aims to empower all women and girls, reinforcing the need to have a reliable indicator to track progress. Our objective was to develop a novel women's empowerment indicator from widely available data sources, broadening opportunities for monitoring and research on women's empowerment.MethodsWe used Demographic and Health Survey data from 34 African countries, targeting currently partnered women. We identified items related to women's empowerment present in most surveys, and used principal component analysis to extract the components. We carried out a convergent validation process using coverage of three health interventions as outcomes; and an external validation process by analysing correlations with the Gender Development Index.Findings15 items related to women's empowerment were selected. We retained three components (50% of total variation) which, after rotation, were identified as three dimensions of empowerment: attitude to violence, social independence, and decision making. All dimensions had moderate to high correlation with the Gender Development Index. Social independence was associated with higher coverage of maternal and child interventions; attitude to violence and decision making were more consistently associated with the use of modern contraception.InterpretationThe index, named Survey-based Women's emPowERment index (SWPER), has potential to widen the research on women's empowerment and to give a better estimate of its effect on health interventions and outcomes. It allows within-country and between-country comparison, as well as time trend analysis, which no other survey-based index provides.FundingBill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Highlights
With the call to “leave no one behind”, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were launched last year by the UN
Most of what we found was from the USAID website, where the Demographic and Health Survey reports are published
Added value of this study We propose an indicator (SWPER), which encompasses three well recognised domains of women’s empowerment
Summary
With the call to “leave no one behind”, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were launched last year by the UN. Gender equity has been specified in many of the SDGs, and goal 5 explicitly aims at the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls. Women’s empowerment is a complex concept for which several definitions exist. Empowerment for women only happens when they can envisage a different life and consider themselves able and entitled to make decisions.[2] It involves the development of a critical consciousness of women’s rights and of gendered power relations, and how these can be changed, so that gender inequity can be overcome.[3] Empowering women and girls is a goal in itself, as well as a promoter of development.[1]
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