Indicators Of Women's Empowerment Research Articles

WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT AND FERTILITY BEHAVIOUR IN OGBIA LGA OF BAYELSA STATE, NIGERIA

This study investigated the effects of women empowerment on fertility behaviour using Ogbia LGA, in Bayelsa State, Nigeria. The study sought to find out how different women empowerment indicators can affect different fertility behaviour. The Quality-Quantity theory and Feminist patriarchal theory served as the theoretical framework for the study. The sample selected for the study was made up of 394 women of child bearing age. Data collected for the study were analysed, using both descriptive and inferential statistics. Findings from the study revealed that women who are empowered are more likely to have positive fertility behaviour. Based on the findings, recommendations such as the need for the women to become more empowered by encouraging them to participate more in public spheres of life and to attain better education, etc. were made.

Impact of Microfinance on Women Empowerment: An Empirical Evidence from Andhra Pradesh

This paper makes an attempt to evaluate the effectiveness of microfinance on empowerment of women. A crosssectional research on 215 women in the State of Andhra Pradesh, India through a structured questionnaire was conducted. Population of study is women who are associated with Self Help Groups (SHG’s). These women are married and have at least one child. Exploratory factor analysis is used to study the indicators of women empowerment. Results reveal that indicators of women empowerment are household economic decision making, legal awareness, mobility, economic security and family decision making. Five hypotheses are developed to evaluate the effectiveness of microfinance on empowerment of women for mentioned five indicators. Paired samples t test is used to know the difference in women’s perception before joining microfinance program and after joining microfinance program. The findings of this study reveal that microfinance is a powerful tool in enhancing women empowerment for its all indicators like household economic decision making, legal awareness, mobility, economic security and family decision making.

Women’s Declining Employment with Access to Higher Education

Access to higher education opened up avenues for more women workforce in decent employment contributing to the national economy. Government policies/schemes played a significant role in improving this significant indicator of women empowerment. This access also had an impact on their enrolment and choice of subjects but was accompanied by several challenges. More women in higher education were not accompanied by increase in employment for women, and have remained vastly inadequate. This is evident from the declining workforce participation rate for women in the country. This article attempts to analyze this disconnect or mismatch between higher education and employment for women despite phenomenal improvements in their access to higher education in India especially in the urban context. It highlights the key reasons pertaining to this disconnect and emphasizes that the quest of women’s declining employment can only be resolved by plugging the gap between higher education and employment for women in future.

What Factors Play a Role in Empowering Women? A Study of SHG Members from India

Self-employment holds the key to continuity of employment. Self-employed members of self-help groups (SHGs) fare better than their wage-earning counterparts when it comes to continuity of employment. These were some of the findings of a study based on two rounds of primary surveys—one in 2005 and the other in 2009—of the same set of SHG members from the North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal in India. The study dwelt on the factors influencing the different indicators of women empowerment among the members of 26 matured all-woman SHGs. It also isolated the socioeconomic demographic factors influencing the joint probability of a group member being both empowered and employed. The study concluded that training significantly influences various dimensions of empowerment, and the trained group members are more likely to be both empowered as well as employed.

Gender Inequalities and Economic Growth: A Longitudinal Evaluation

This longitudinal evaluation of gender inequalities and economic growth addresses key questions in the evolving debate over the character of gender differentiation and the goals of womens empowerment. These questions include: 1) whether the impact of strategies of economic growth served to enhance or undermine the status of women; 2) whether changes in the status of women were accompanied by significant changes in gender inequality; and 3) the implications for existing debates. Section I reviews several sets of literature pertinent to the questions using three general approaches: modernization-neoclassical women in development and gender and development. Section II presents the data and methods used in the evaluation. The research assessed the contending interpretations reviewed in the first section by combining another set of cross-sectional and longitudinal data on womens status and inequalities between men and women with other existing indicators. Section III discusses the results in the following order: 1) cross-sectional patterns in womens status; 2) trends in womens status; 3) cross-sectional patterns in inequality between men and women; 4) trends in inequality between men and women; and 5) conclusion. Finally section IV presents an overall discussion of the findings of the whole longitudinal evaluation.

Wives, Husbands and Sharing of Household Works in Indian Villages

There is a general belief that nowadays men share household works and there is a change from the tradition. The main objective of the paper is to analyse whether husbands shares the household works in rural areas and the study was conducted with 450 respondents in 26 villages in India. The study reports that the findings are not encouraging as projected or anticipated and suggests NGOs NGOs and SHGs should take role in sensitising men to assist in the household works since sharing of household works by men is considered as an indicator of women empowerment. Keywords: Households-sharing; SHGs; NGOs; HDI; GDI DOI: 10.3126/dsaj.v4i0.4521 Dhaulagiri Journal of Sociology and Anthropology Vol.4 2010 pp.211-222