Major Household Purchases Research Articles

Gender differences in the acceptance of wife-beating: evidence from 30 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa

BackgroundThe World Health Organization (WHO) has cited domestic violence as an urgent global maternal and child health priority. Gender differences in the acceptance of wife-beating have not been explored at the multi-country level in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) where the occurrence of wife-beating (36%) is greater than the global average (30%). It is against this backdrop that we examine the gender differences in the acceptance of wife beating in SSA.MethodsWe used Demographic and Health Survey data from 30 SSA countries. Acceptance of wife beating among women and men was the principal outcome variable of interest. We employed Multiple correspondence analysis and logistic regression model as the primary estimation methods for this study. The descriptive statistics show that women had a higher acceptance rate (44%) of wife beating than men (25%). For the women sample, Mali, Democratic Republic of Congo, Chad, and Guinea had higher rates of acceptance of the wife beating (80.6%, 78.4%, 77.1% and 70.3% respectively) For the men, only Guinea had an acceptance rate above 50 percent.ResultsWe found that all else equal, women’s acceptance of wife beating is higher for male-headed households than for female-headed households. Women without formal education were 3.1 times more likely to accept wife beating than those with higher education. Men with no formal education were 2.3 times more likely to accept wife beating than men with higher education. We found that polygamous women were comparable to polygamous men. Polygamous women were 1.2 times more likely to accept wife beating than those in monogamous marriages. Women were 1.2 times more likely to accept wives beating if they had extramarital relationships. Contrarily, men who engaged in extramarital affairs were 1.5 times more likely to justify wife beating. We also found that women’s acceptance of wife beating decreases as they age. Men who decide on major household purchases and spending decisions on their earnings are more likely to accept wife beating. Corollary, women with similar gender and employment roles also accept wife beating. Finally, exposure to mass media is significantly associated with lower acceptance of wife beating for women and men.ConclusionWe conclude that women have a higher acceptance rate of wife beating than men in SSA. Acceptance of wife beating differs significantly by country. Given the same level of education, women are more likely to accept wife beating than men. If women and men have similar levels of employment and gender roles, acceptance of wife beating is higher when men make major household purchasing decisions and and it is still higher even when the woman makes these decisions. Acceptance of wife beating is higher among young women and men, the uneducated, those in polygamous marriages, women, and men who engage in extra marital affairs, poor households and in rural areas. The findings indicate the need for policies and programs by SSA countries to truncate the high acceptance rate of wife beating, especially among women.

Impact of Socio-Economic and Demographic Factors on Women Decision Making while making the household Purchasing - Evidence from Pakistan

This research aims to identify the critical socio-economic and demographic factors influencing women's decision-making power within households. Utilizing data from the Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey (PDHS) 2017-2018, the study focuses on currently married women aged 15-49 years (n = 11,831). The investigation examines four categories of decision-making by women at the household level: own healthcare, major household purchases, utilization of husband's income, and visits to family or relatives. Various socio-economic and demographic variables are analyzed to assess their impact on the four decision-making types. The findings reveal that women's age, employment status, education, place of residence, and number of living children significantly influence their decision-making capacity. Notably, women residing in rural areas demonstrate lower decision-making power across all four domains, highlighting the necessity for targeted empowerment programs to enhance their roles in household decision-making. Moreover, women's education is found to have a positive correlation with decision-making in all four categories (p < 0.01), underscoring its pivotal role in empowering women within the household context. Arguably, the study uncovers that wealthier women have a lower likelihood of holding decision-making power compared to those living in poorer or middle-class households. Addressing this discrepancy necessitates a comprehensive government-level strategy to enhance women's socio-economic status, thereby fostering their authority in household decision-making.
 

Do educational inequalities between marital partners influence the empowerment of educated women in ECOWAS?

ABSTRACT In an environment where the question of women’s empowerment is a burning issue and where inequalities against women in education persist even though they are increasingly educated, it made sense to study the effect of educational inequalities between marital partners on women’s empowerment. Thus, using the latest rounds of the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) women’s file from the four major West African economies including Nigeria (2013), Côte d’Ivoire (2011–12), Ghana (2014) and Senegal (2017), and then using a combination of internal and external instruments to better address issues related to the endogeneity of variables, we show that strong gender disparities in education negatively influence women’s financial and non-financial empowerment. The former is seen as the power of women to make decisions about spending their own and their spouse’s income and major household purchases. The second is the woman’s power to decide on health-related expenses and visits to relatives. Several other socio-demographic variables were likely to influence women’s empowerment. These include the woman’s household social status, age, labour market participation and religion.

Enhanced women’s decision-making power after the Suchana intervention in north-eastern Bangladesh: a cluster randomised pre-post study

ObjectivesWomen’s decision-making power is a dimension of empowerment and is crucial for better physical and psychosocial outcomes of mothers. Suchana, a large-scale development programme in Bangladesh, actively provided social interventions...

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Maternal and neonatal mortality are largely caused by delays in attending to obstetric complications and this is attributed to limited women’s power in making decisions regarding household resources and utilisation of health care services. This requires effective implementation of male engagement interventions to improve women’s autonomy in making decisions and hence reduce delays in attending to obstetric complications. This study examines the contribution of male engagement interventions in promoting women’s autonomy in decision making within households and society. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data on socio-demographic and household characteristics, women’s practices concerning prenatal care, childbirth, postnatal care, and related decision-making power. Descriptive statistics and inferential analysis were used to analyse the data. The findings show a significant difference in decision making autonomy regarding family planning methods among respondents who had received male engagement education versus those who had not received such education (p-0.001<1%). Again, there was significant participation of women in household purchases for daily needs (p-0.057<10%) and in decisions to work out of homes (p-0.015<5%). This trend was noted among respondents who had received male engagement education as compared to those who had not received such education. There was also greater engagement of women in decision making concerning major household purchases and their health care, although their engagement was not statistically significant (p-0.397>10% and p-0.293>10% respectively). Effective implementation of male engagement interventions may leverage men’s power within households and promote women’s autonomy in decision making, thereby improving healthcare-seeking behaviour.

The role of gender power relations on women\u2019s health outcomes: evidence from a maternal health coverage survey in Simiyu region, Tanzania

BackgroundGender is a crucial consideration of human rights that impacts many priority maternal health outcomes. However, gender is often only reported in relation to sex-disaggregated data in health coverage surveys. Few coverage surveys to date have integrated a more expansive set of gender-related questions and indicators, especially in low- to middle-income countries that have high levels of reported gender inequality. Using various gender-sensitive indicators, we investigated the role of gender power relations within households on women’s health outcomes in Simiyu region, Tanzania.MethodsWe assessed 34 questions around gender dynamics reported by men and women against 18 women’s health outcomes. We created directed acyclic graphs (DAGs) to theorize the relationship between indicators, outcomes, and sociodemographic covariates. We grouped gender variables into four categories using an established gender framework: (1) women’s decision-making, (2) household labor-sharing, (3) women’s resource access, and (4) norms/beliefs. Gender indicators that were most proximate to the health outcomes in the DAG were tested using multivariate logistic regression, adjusting for sociodemographic factors.ResultsThe overall percent agreement of gender-related indicators within couples was 68.6%. The lowest couple concordance was a woman’s autonomy to decide to see family/friends without permission from her husband/partner (40.1%). A number of relationships between gender-related indicators and health outcomes emerged: questions from the decision-making domain were found to play a large role in women’s health outcomes, and condoms and contraceptive outcomes had the most robust relationship with gender indicators. Women who reported being able to make their own health decisions were 1.57 times (95% CI: 1.12, 2.20) more likely to use condoms. Women who reported that they decide how many children they had also reported high contraception use (OR: 1.79, 95% CI: 1.34, 2.39). Seeking care at the health facility was also associated with women’s autonomy for making major household purchases (OR: 1.35, 95% CI: 1.13, 1.62).ConclusionsThe association between decision-making and other gender domains with women’s health outcomes highlights the need for heightened attention to gender dimensions of intervention coverage in maternal health. Future studies should integrate and analyze gender-sensitive questions within coverage surveys.

Women’s Autonomy in Household Purchasing Decision Making in Sri Lanka: An Application of Multivariate Baseline-Category Logit Model

As many researches on gender and household purchasing decision making are sociological as well as descriptive, this attempt tries to fill the gap with applying of statistical model in to the same context. This is basically an inductive approach that generates data, applies joint modeling and moves forward in sociological interpretation. The data has been generated in an Island-wide survey consisting 28,800 household units in Sri Lanka in 2016. Generalized linear mixed approach was applied to baseline-category logit models to identify the factors associated with women’s autonomy in decision making on daily household purchases and major household purchases. This research comes up to the conclusions that women’s age, education status of the women and spouses, number of children, residence area and economic status in the family emerged as important factors associated with women’s autonomy in decision making. Increased age, well paid employment and having many living children are all positively associated with women’s autonomy in decision making in both daily household purchases and major household purchases. Women from rural and estate areas are less likely be autonomous in decision making than the women from urban areas. Highly educated women are more likely to make decisions jointly while the women who less attended formal education are further likely to make decisions unaccompanied.

Influence of women's empowerment indices on the utilization of skilled maternity care: evidence from rural Nigeria.

There is increasing evidence that women with the ability to exercise control over their sexual and reproductive lives have greater access to prompt prevention and treatment of maternal health disorders, resulting in a concomitant reduction in maternal morbidity and mortality. This study assessed the association between indices of women's empowerment and utilization of skilled antenatal, intrapartum and postnatal maternity care in two rural Local Government Areas in Edo State, Nigeria. Data were taken from a household survey conducted in July and August 2017, and the study sample comprised 1245 ever-married women currently in a union who had given birth in the 5 years preceding the survey. A Gender Roles Framework guided the selection of independent women's empowerment variables. Using hierarchical logistic regression, the likelihood of receiving all three levels of skilled maternal health care service (antenatal, intrapartum and postnatal) by women's empowerment variables, grouped into resource, decision-making and influencer domains following the model of Anderson and Neuman, was assessed. Of the resource domain variables, respondent's education and respondent's participation in payment for their own health care positively predicted their use of all three levels of skilled maternal care, whereas their ownership of land negatively predicted this. Two decision-making domain variables were significantly associated with respondent's use of all three levels of service: those who made decisions alone about major household purchases were twice as likely to use all three levels of services than when decisions were made by their partners or others, while respondent making decisions alone about what food to cook each day was a negative predictor. Of the influencer variables, religion and a large spousal education gap were strong positive factors, whereas living in a consensual union rather than being legally married was a negative factor. Although health system factors are important, interventions geared towards changing gender norms that constrain women's empowerment are critical to achieving maternal health-related development goals in Nigeria. A composite strategy that targets all women's empowerment indices is recommended, as Nigeria strives towards achieving SDG-3.

Prevalence of Stunting and Its Associated Factors among Children of 6-59 Months in Arba Minch Health and Demographic Surveillance Site (HDSS), Southern Ethiopia: A Community-Based Cross-Sectional Study.

Methods The community-based cross sectional study was conducted in the Arba Minch Health and Demographic Surveillance Site, Southern Ethiopia. The simple random sampling method was used to recruit 656 mother-child pairs. Height for age Z score was computed using WHO Anthro version 3.2.2 software. Multivariable logistic regression model was fitted, and adjusted odds ratio (AOR) at p value <0.05 was used to determine statistically significant association between predictors and outcome variable. Result The prevalence of stunting among children of 6–59 months in the study area was 47.9% (95% CI; 44.0–51.7). The likelihood of stunting was significantly higher among children who live in households with medium (AOR 2.20, 95% CI: 1.43–3.37) and poor (AOR 2.87, 95% CI: 1.72–4.81) wealth status. In addition, children who were not exclusively breast fed (AOR 1.55, 95% CI: 1.07–2.24), whose mothers had not participated in decision of major household purchases (AOR 2.27, 95% CI: 1.21–4.26), and whose mothers lacked decision on freedom of mobility (AOR 1.96, 95% CI: 1.05–3.66) were significantly stunted compared with counterparts. Conclusion Stunting is a severe public health problem in the area. Therefore, efforts should be taken to enhance maternal empowerment, household wealth, and infant and young child feeding practice for reducing stunting among children.

Women’s empowerment among married women aged 15 to 49 in Myanmar

The present study entails an investigation of the empowerment of married women aged 15 to 49 in Myanmar from socioeconomic and demographic perspectives based on data from the Myanmar Demographic and Health Survey 2015-16. The dimensions of women’s empowerment are categorized into two parts: women’s control over their earnings, and women’s participation in household decision-making (decisions on major household purchases, visits to family or relatives, their health care; and the well-being of their children). These two dimensions are combined to create an index of women’s empowerment. A binary logistic regression is used, by means of odds ratios to assess the relationship between women’s level of empowerment and their socioeconomic and demographic characteristics. Overall, the findings of the study show that a higher empowerment level is associated with women’s employment, increased age, urban residence, a higher educational attainment, a higher wealth quintile, and a lower level of husband’s education. In addition, women that have one child or up to four children are more likely to have a higher level of empowerment than women with no children. About three fourths of the women in the sample live in rural areas. Among those women, the ones with a higher level of empowerment are more educated, employed and have higher household income. Generating employment opportunities for women and educating women are important factors that can lead to an increase in women’s income, and accordingly, help raise the levels of women’s empowerment.

Women’s autonomy and utilisation of maternal healthcare services in 31 Sub-Saharan African countries: results from the demographic and health surveys, 2010–2016

ObjectivesTo examine the association between women’s autonomy and the utilisation of maternal healthcare services across 31 Sub-Saharan African countries.Design, setting and participantsWe analysed the Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) (2010–2016)...

The impact of women’s education and employment on their empowerment: an empirical evidence from household level survey

This study is an attempt to investigate the impact of women’s education and employment on their empowerment. Secondary data of Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey 2012–2013 has been used for Binary Logistic regression analysis. Women’s participation in decision making has been used as a proxy of women empowerment. According to our measure, women are consider empowered if they have participation in decisions regarding their own health care, mobility, spending of household income, major household purchases and decision regarding contraceptive use. Results show that both women’s education and employment play an important role in women empowerment. Educated women are more likely to participate in decision making regarding their own health care, major household purchases, visits to family and relatives, spending of household earnings and decision regarding contraceptive use as compared to uneducated women. Employment of women has also been found positively associated with their participation in decisions regarding their own health care, major household purchases, visits to family or relatives and spending of household earning.

Individual versus community-level measures of women decisionmaking involvement and child survival in Nigeria

Background. Although decision-making authority is associated with maternal healthcare utilisation, the evidence on the relative importance of individual-level v. community-level decision-making participation for child survival in sub-Saharan Africa is limited. Objectives. To assess the net effects of individual- and community-level measures of decision-making involvement (DMI) on under-5 mortality in Nigeria. Methods. Data on a nationally representative sample of 31 482 children in the 2013 Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey were analysed. Mothers who reported involvement in decision-making on own healthcare, major household purchases and visits to friends and relatives were categorised as having high DMI. Community-level measures of DMI were derived by aggregating the individual measures at the cluster level. Kaplan-Meier estimates of childhood mortality rates were computed. Multilevel discrete-time hazard models were employed to investigate the net effect of individual- and community-level DMI on childhood mortality. Results. Childhood mortality, at 59 months, was higher among children of women with low DMI (120 per 1 000) compared with those with high DMI (84 per 1 000). The full multilevel model showed that there was no difference in the risk of childhood death between children whose mothers had high v. low DMI (hazard ratio (HR) 1.01, CI 0.90 - 1.12). However, mortality risk was found to be lower among children in communities with medium DMI (HR 0.84, CI 0.74 - 0.96). Maternal age at child’s birth, education, household wealth index and preceding birth interval were significantly associated with under-five mortality. Conclusion. Besides socioeconomic and biodemographic characteristics, community- and not individual-level DMI was associated with under-5 mortality. Women’s empowerment programmes targeting maternal and child health outcomes should also focus on communities.

Women empowerment through health seeking behavior in Bangladesh: Evidence from a national survey

Empowering women is an important subject to achieve targets for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of Bangladesh. There are several indicators to measure the empowerment of women. Health seeking information is one of the most important indicators in this regard. This study aims at identifying the levels and patterns of women empowerment in relation to health seeking behavior in Bangladesh. Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS) 2011 data was used for the study. A total of 16635 women of reproductive age were included in this study. Only 42% of recently married women participated in all the four discussions regarding their own health care, major household purchases, child health care, and visiting their family or relatives. Cross tabulation and logistic regression analyses were performed to know about women empowerment in relation to health seeking behavior on decision making, controlling the effect of other independent variables. The results showed that about 63% women were empowered (either by themselves or jointly with their husbands) to decide on their own healthcare seeking and around 67% in healthcare seeking for their children. Working women were 1.734 times more likely to seek their own healthcare than non-working women. Again rural women appeared to be 21% less likely to seek child healthcare compared to urban women. The results of this study showed that seeking health information empowered women to promote their self-confidence, filter the information, manage life problems successfully, feel strength against health problems and disabilities, and be encouraged to seek more information.South East Asia Journal of Public Health Vol.6(1) 2016: 40-45

Understanding women's decision making power and its link to improved household sanitation: the case of Kenya

Women experience many motivational drivers for improving sanitation, but it is unclear how women's role in household decision making affects whether a household opts for better sanitation. We analyzed the Kenya Demographic and Health Survey 2008/2009 with a representative sample of 4,556 married and cohabiting women to examine the association between women's decision making power in relation to that of partners and the type of sanitation facilities used by household members. The independent effects of respondents’ education, employment status, and socioeconomic status on the type of sanitation facilities were also explored. The direct measurement of women's ability to influence sanitation practice was not available. To address this problem, this study used proxy measures of women's decision making power in the household. The results of this study revealed that women's decision making power for major household purchases was positively associated with households having better sanitation (p &amp;lt; 0.05). The findings suggest that increased gender equity could potentially have spillover effects that result in more households opting to improve their sanitation conditions.

Does Women’s Land Ownership Promote Their Empowerment? Empirical Evidence from Nepal

Land rights equity is seen as an important tool for increasing empowerment and economic welfare for women in developing countries. Accordingly, the objective of this paper is to empirically examine the role of women’s land ownership, either alone or jointly, as a means of improving their intra-household bargaining power in the areas of own healthcare, major household purchases, and visiting family or relatives. Using the 2001 and 2011 Nepal Demographic and Health Surveys and relevant econometric techniques, we find that land ownership has a positive and significant impact on women’s empowerment. In particular, we find two important patterns of results. First, accounting for the endogeneity of land ownership with inverse probability weighting, coarsened exact matching and instrumental variable methods makes its impact on empowerment higher. Previous research in this area had largely ignored the potential endogeneity of land ownership. Second, the impact is generally stronger in 2011 than in 2001. As evidenced in a number of empirical studies, the increase in women’s bargaining power can in turn translate into a redirection of resources toward women’s preferences, including higher investment in human capital of the household such as education, health, and nutrition. Therefore, our study indicates that in places where agriculture is the main source of economy for women, policies enhancing land rights equity have the potential to increase women’s empowerment and associated beneficial welfare effects.

A Teapot, a House, or Both? The Material Possessions of Irish Women’s California Assemblages

Using a woman-centered approach, artifact assemblages and background documents are analyzed to discern gender behavior and ethnic variations in women’s work—cooking, dining, housecleaning—in more frivolous areas—flowers, pets, girls’ toys—and personal adornment. Issues of gender bias are discussed. The data show that negative evidence (absence vs. presence) is, at times, misleading and must be carefully considered. Detailed study of the artifacts connected with Irish women suggests their gender values that organized their lives differed from those of Anglo-American women who had a voice in small expressive purchases while men made final decisions on major household purchases. Irish women owned small items too. However, a crucial distinction was an element not covered by the archaeology: a house of their own and owner-occupied, a fact solely visible in documents.

Women's autonomy in household decision-making: a demographic study in Nepal.

BackgroundHow socio-demographic factors influence women's autonomy in decision making on health care including purchasing goods and visiting family and relatives are very poorly studied in Nepal. This study aims to explore the links between women's household position and their autonomy in decision making.MethodsWe used Nepal Demographic Health Survey (NDHS) 2006, which provided data on ever married women aged 15-49 years (n = 8257). The data consists of women's four types of household decision making; own health care, making major household purchases, making purchase for daily household needs and visits to her family or relatives. A number of socio-demographic variables were used in multivariable logistic regression to examine the relationship of these variables to all four types of decision making.ResultsWomen's autonomy in decision making is positively associated with their age, employment and number of living children. Women from rural area and Terai region have less autonomy in decision making in all four types of outcome measure. There is a mixed variation in women's autonomy in the development region across all outcome measures. Western women are more likely to make decision in own health care (1.2-1.6), while they are less likely to purchase daily household needs (0.6-0.9). Women's increased education is positively associated with autonomy in own health care decision making (p < 0.01), however their more schooling (SLC and above) shows non-significance with other outcome measures. Interestingly, rich women are less likely to have autonomy to make decision in own healthcare.ConclusionsWomen from rural area and Terai region needs specific empowerment programme to enable them to be more autonomous in the household decision making. Women's autonomy by education, wealth quintile and development region needs a further social science investigation to observe the variations within each stratum. A more comprehensive strategy can enable women to access community resources, to challenge traditional norms and to access economic resources. This will lead the women to be more autonomous in decision making in the due course.