Women political empowerment and child health: an empirical analysis, 1990-2016

Abstract

Abstract Empowering women has been presented as a key strategy to improve child health. Yet, the literature on the subject is mixed, with strong variations in measures or according to context. Additionally, most of the research focuses on social or economic empowerment at the individual level rather than on structural factors or political empowerment. In this study, we explore whether women political empowerment is associated with improved health for children under 5 years old, in comparison to socio-economic empowerment or structural factors from the sustainable development agenda. We use the V-Dem project’s Women’s Political Empowerment Index and its components, combined with selected indicators of child health from the World Bank’s World Development Indicators for 166 countries, between 1990 and 2016. We estimate random- and fixed-effects regressions for the index as a whole and its individual components against child mortality, stunting and immunization coverage, controlling for structural and socio-economic indicators. The association between women political empowerment and child health outcomes tends to weaken once country heterogeneity is accounted for. Looking at individual components of women empowerment, factors or markers of socio-economic empowerment tend to have a stronger positive effect on child health compared to more political ones, for which we found either no correlations or even detrimental links to child health outcomes. Our results demonstrate the complexity of the relations linking women empowerment and child health. Presenting women political empowerment as a whole as the solution to improved child health appears misguided. However, selected individual freedoms and markers of women socio-economic empowerment are associated with positive effects on specific child health outcomes. This calls for a more context-specific yet multi-dimensional approach to women empowerment and child health in order to provide cohesive evidence to achieve the related SDGs. Key messages The relations between different dimensions of women empowerment and child health are complex. Women socio-economic empowerment may offer better leverages than political empowerment to improve child health.