Women Empowerment Index Research Articles

Intrahousehold Resource Allocation and Women’s Bargaining Power: New Evidence from Bangladesh

By using data from a relatively recent nationally representative survey of Bangladesh, this paper investigates the relationship between intrahousehold resource allocation and women's bargaining power. Along with the two regularly used bargaining power indicators, viz. resources brought at marriage and earned incomes by men and women, an index of empowerment has also been constructed using the information on various social, economic and cultural practices under which women operate to find out if their improved position can have any significant influence on household budgetary allocations. Regression results reveal significant differential effects of men‟s and women's incomes and assets on the budget shares of different goods while the women empowerment index also registers statistical significance in most cases. Therefore, in contrast to the so-called common preference or the unitary model of household behavior the evidence seems to suggest that women's bargaining power and improved empowerment do influence intrahousehold resource allocation.

The Role of Gender in Economic Activities with Special Reference to Women’s Participation and Empowerment in Rural Bangladesh

Bangladesh is known as a predominantly male-dominated society with traditional and religious beliefs that restrict women’s mobility and participation in economic and social activities. This article is based on national rural representative household-level data collected in 1987 and 2000 from 62 villages in Bangladesh jointly conducted by the International Rice Research Institute and Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies. First, this article depicts patterns of women’s work and analyzes the factors that influence the gender division of labor. Second, a women empowerment index is developed from the 2000 survey data on intra-household decision-making in different spheres, and its relationship with women’s work is then explored. The persistent gender division of labor in rural Bangladesh has been found to be associated with both economic and socio-cultural factors. Rural economic activities within the household were found to have a weak impact on women’s empowerment.