Measure Of Women's Empowerment Research Articles

Kadınların Güçlendirilmesi ve Göç Etme Niyeti Üzerine Hanehalkı Düzeyinde Bir Araştırma: Afganistan Örneği

This study investigates the relationship between two important concerns, which are migration intentions of households and women empowerment in the case of Afghanistan where migration is a process that continues from its history to the present, and international indicators shows a quite bad picture on women empowerment or gender equality. It is obvious that women in this country presents a great vulnerability and they need to be empowered. However, it is not that obvious whether their empowerment is associated with migration intention of households. Therefore, this paper questions how and in which way the empowerment of women as a vulnerable group within different segments of Afghan society influence migration intention of households. Findings show that women empowerment measures, that are Women_leader, Women_support, Women_job, and Girls_edu, do not significantly influence migration intentions of households when they exist separately. However, it significantly influence migration intentions when they are allowed to interact together. It might be said that empowerment of women from political, social, and economic aspects that are presented by four of abovementioned measures is important to explain potential movements of population. Besides, there is significant regional differences to explain migration intentions. These findings are expected to be useful for policy makers on migration policies.

Gender inequality, women's empowerment, and adolescent birth rates in 363 Latin American cities

BackgroundGender inequality is high in Latin America (LA). Empowering girls and young women and reducing gender gaps has been proposed as a pathway to reduce adolescent pregnancy. We investigated the associations of urban measures of women's empowerment and gender inequality with adolescent birth rates (ABR) in 366 Latin American cities in nine countries. MethodsWe created a gender inequality index (GII) and three Women Achievement scores reflecting domains of women's empowerment (employment, education, and health care access) using censuses, surveys, and political participation data at city and sub-city levels. We used 3-level negative binomial models (sub-city-city-countries) to assess the association between the GII and scores, with ABR while accounting for other city and sub-city characteristics. ResultsWe found within country heterogeneity in gender inequality and women's empowerment measures. The ABR was 4% higher for each 1 standard deviation (1-SD) higher GII (RR 1.04; 95%CI 1.01,1.06), 8% lower for each SD higher autonomy score (RR 0.92; 95%CI 0.86, 0.99), and 12% lower for each SD health care access score (RR 0.88; 95%CI 0.82,0.95) after adjustment for city level population size, population growth, homicide rates, and sub-city population educational attainment and living conditions scores. ConclusionOur findings show the key role cities have in reducing ABR through the implementation of strategies that foster women's socioeconomic progress such as education, employment, and health care access.

The associations between women's empowerment measures, child growth and dietary diversity: Findings from an analysis of demographic and health surveys of seven countries in Eastern Africa.

Evidence on the efficacy of women's empowerment to improve child growth and minimum dietary diversity (MDD) in the Eastern Africa (EA) region is limited. This cross‐sectional study used recent Demographic and Health Survey data of mother–child dyads from seven countries in EA to examine the associations between women's empowerment measures, child growth and MDD. Length‐for‐age z‐scores, weight‐for‐length z‐scores and weight‐for‐age z‐scores were used to categorize growth indicators of 6–23 months old children. Multivariable logistic regression was used to identify significant associations. Among all countries, 32%–59% of children experienced growth failure. Children meeting MDD were 18%–45%. Women having self‐esteem were associated with lower odds of stunting (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 0.62 in Rwanda), wasting (AOR = 0.38 in Uganda), underweight (AORs = 0.60 and 0.57 in Tanzania and Uganda, respectively) and growth failure (AOR = 0.64 in Rwanda). Having health decision control in Burundi was associated with lower odds of stunting (AOR = 0.49) and child growth failure (AOR = 0.52) and higher odds of meeting MDD (AOR = 2.50). Having Legal empowerment among women increased the odds of stunting (AOR = 1.79 in Burundi), underweight (AOR = 1.77 in Uganda) and growth failure (AOR = 1.87 in Burundi). Economic empowerment showed mixed associations with child growth and MDD among some countries. Women's self‐esteem and health decision control were associated with better child growth and MDD for some countries in EA. Nutrition‐sensitive interventions aimed at improving child growth and MDD should consider local contexts when addressing women's empowerment.

Women's Empowerment and Food Security in Cameroon

The zero-hunger objective of the Sustainable Development Goals is still far from reach as food insecurity continues to be a problem. Literature largely associates women empowerment with food security but its empirical evidence is still sparse, especially in Cameroon. To fill this gap, the study investigates the effect of women empowerment on food security in Cameroon. The methodology employed eight indicators of women empowerment drawn from the Cameroon Consumption Household Survey IV to construct an index of women empowerment using the Multiple Correspondence Analysis. Likewise, Household Food Insecurity Access Scale is used in combination with other food security measures to construct a composite index of food security. The study then employs two stage least square instrumental variable model for analysis. Pre-estimation and post-estimation tests were employed for robustness; such as the Anderson canon LR Statistics to test for the strength of the instruments used and the endogeneity test to validate the need for the instrumental variable regression. The key result posits that women empowerment has a positive and significant effect on food security. A unit increase in women empowerment increases food security by 0.474 and it is significant at 5% significant level. This aligns with apriori expectation. Furthermore, household size, the square of household size, age and the square of age are all not significant. Though, household size and age are negative while their squares are positive. Also, the results show that households located in urban areas are significantly more food secure than those in rural areas at a 1% level of significance. Respondents who were married had significantly lower food security than the unmarried and Christian women had significantly lower food security than their counterparts. The study recommends that there is need to set up programs and institutions that empower women in all aspects so as to ensure food security consequently. Furthermore, the empowerment of women should be incorporated in food poverty reduction strategies that touches the household directly. Conclusively, the study insinuates a positive relationship between women empowerment and food security, therefore all women empowerment measures must be promoted and institutionalized if food security must be improved.

Women in Education sector: Monitoring and Evaluation of the Impact of Education Policies on Women Empowerment

One of the perspectives of delving women in academia is by using Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) goal 4 ‘Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all’, to measure the SDG number 5, ‘Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls’ - and the vice versa. The extent of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) realization provides lessons that the current and future education policies and programs are/ will be founded on. To achieve a thorough analysis, consistently accurate and relevant data is requisite and essential to monitoring and evaluating the real effects of education policies on women empowerment. At a glance, the average children enrolment in primary education rose remarkably between 2000-2015 in most developing countries indicating the extent of achievement of MDGs. Shifting from these quantitative evaluation results, this study outlines qualitative perspectives of measuring women in leadership in the education sector as an approach of empowerment. A key concern is how the generation of data through monitoring and evaluation enables fast-tracking of the effects of the policies on women empowerment in the education system. In this article, we focus on three school management variables as measures of women empowerment: 1) the nature of both internal and external audits to ensure accountability and transparency; 2) professionalism enhancement (nature of the In-service education training), and 3) the analysis of resource needs in empowering women. While doing the monitoring and evaluation of SDGs achievement, there is a need to deepen the analysis and consider the processes that determine which gender elevates to leadership.

Homeownership, Renting and Market Failures: Evidence from Indian Slums

Housing rents are a major part of a slum household’s expenditure. I exploit a large scale ’big-push’ national urban renewal policy reform in India between 2005 and 2012 to empirically evaluate the multi-dimensional effect of rental reforms and housing provisions on home ownership, rental expenditures and quality of dwelling for slum households. One of the main benefits accruing to the affordable housing policy was to provide the entitlement of the land to the female head of the households as a measure of women empowerment.1 Combining a novel pooled cross-sectional household survey data for year 2002, 2008, 2012 and nighttime lights activity data at district level, I find the reform significantly increases the real rents by 18.2% and the probability to transition to homeownership by 16.7 percentage points. Females are 2.4 percentage points more likely to be the head of the household. The findings highlight the role of market failure.

Role of Women's Empowerment in Child Nutrition Outcomes: A Systematic Review

Women's empowerment has gained attention as critical for child nutrition during the first 1000 days of life. However, the ways in which various women's empowerment measures are applied and the evidence for how they are differentially related to child nutrition is unclear. In this systematic review, therefore, we 1) systematically parse the many ways in which women's empowerment has been quantitatively measured in the context of child nutrition through the use of a theoretically driven application of dimensions and domains of empowerment; 2) summarize evidence for each of the various pathways between women's empowerment and child nutrition, based on dimensions and domains of empowerment; and 3) offer suggestions for future research to better articulate the relationship between women's empowerment and child nutrition. A search of evidence yielded 62 quantitative studies that used 200 unique indicators of women's empowerment, tested in 1316 associations with various child nutrition outcomes. Despite the large number of unique indicators, indicators for time resource allocation and reproductive decisions and indicators for men's engagement in child care and nutrition, all pertinent to child nutrition, were missing. Overall, the findings indicated an inconclusive relationship between women's empowerment and child nutrition: 379 out of 461 (82% weighted) and 217 out of 258 (84% weighted) associations found with stunting and wasting outcomes, respectively, were not significant. The current lack of evidence is likely not due to the absence of an underlying relationship between women's empowerment and child nutrition, but rather limitations in study design. Future research should carefully select women's empowerment indicators in context-specific ways, aggregate them meaningfully, and use a longitudinal study design to conduct pathway and lifecycle analysis in appropriate populations to clarify the relationship between women's empowerment and child nutrition.

Exploring Dimension, Perceived Individual Tension and Capacity Building Measure of Women Empowerment in India

The objective of current study is to identify different dimensions of women empowerment, problems and challenges such as perceived tension of individual self -help group member in the process of women empowerment, and suggestions to improve women empowerment in the context of India. The 351 responses were collected via stratified random sampling from members of self -help groups, and an exploratory principal component analysis is undertaken to identify the number of components that underlie the women empowerment. Further, a confirmatory factor analysis is used to confirm the factors in the study. The findings indicate five broad dimensions (i.e. economic, political, social, legal, psychological), four different types of perceived individual tensions (i.e., economic, social, legal, technology-oriented learning), and four significant categories of capacity building measures (i.e. training on governance, technology-driven livelihood support, promoting networking, social justice & harmony) of women empowerment.

Assessing Women Empowerment in Africa

This review discusses the religious and cultural challenges to the empowerment of women in some patriarchal societies in Africa. The article takes a critical reflection on some of the contextual deficiencies of the gender empowerment measure (GEM) developed by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) as a universal benchmark for assessing gender inequality. It has been highlighted that agency is a necessary component in the conceptualisation and realisation of women empowerment particularly in Africa. The article further demonstrates that the GEM has capitalist, elitist and Eurocentric biases that account for a relatively small percentage of women in the formal sector of the African economy. The nuances of multiple and overlapping identities of women in many African countries that are not adequately encapsulated in the scope of the GEM are discussed. It is thus concluded that women empowerment measures and indicators should be sensitive to the context and values of those it seeks to assess rather than adopting abstract mappings that tend to reduce and universalise all women in all societies.

Trend and Levels of Women Empowerment in Nigeria

Women empowerment has become major factor in economic development and is increasingly at the core of countries’ competitiveness in the global economy. The main objective of this paper is to ascertain the trend and level of women empowerment in Nigeria by 2015. Secondary data from Nigeria Demographic and Health Survey (NDHS), Nigeria Demographic and Education Survey (NDES), and National Population Commission (NPC) were used. Employment, education and literacy rate were adopted as measures of women empowerment. An overview of the relationship between women’s level of education and other background characteristics was carried out. The results showed that men are more likely than women to have some education. Over 40 percent of men are literate compared to 13 percent of women, which is similar to the results obtained from variables like occupation, agriculture, etc. Employment is one source of empowerment for women but unfortunately it is difficult to measure their employment status because the informal sectors are not reported. However, the data on hand indicates, for instance, that women and men currently employed in the North West are 46 and 54 percent respectively. Also, the employment rate of men and women in urban area are of the ratio 42:37 percent while the employment ratio of men to women in the rural area is 63:58. The study also hints that employment, education and literacy rate of women are strong determinants of economic growth and they should not be neglected as the nation works toward attaining vision 2020 goals.

Sexual coercion within marriage in Bangladesh

Synopsis This article examines the influence of intra-marital gender relations on sexual decision-making and women's sexual and reproductive health in Bangladesh. It presents findings based on qualitative data that indicate that strict patterns of traditional responsibilities and decision-making regarding sexual relationships leave little room for women's consent. Notions of women's right to sexual pleasure or to refuse sex are widely rejected by men, many of whom, in contrast, view sex with their wives as a husband's right. As such, a majority of women in the study experienced sexual intercourse against their will, based on a combination of threats, intimidation and force, which interview responses suggest may have serious consequences on their sexual and reproductive health. In the conclusion, some practical implications of the research are covered, and policy recommendations are made to combine women's empowerment measures with men's engagement and awareness-raising, as well as supportive legal frameworks.

Women empowerment as measure of good governance in Nigeria

This paper discussed the status of women empowerment as a measure of sustainable good governance in Nigeria. The study examines the variables used as measures of women empowerment. Information were derived from secondary data drawn mainly from 2003 Nigeria Demographic and Health survey (NDHS), and compared with those from selected developing countries including 2003 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey (GDHS), 2004 Malawi Demographic and Health Survey (MDHS), 2004 Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey (BDHS), and the 2005 Egypt Demographic and Health Survey (EDHB). The results of the analyses showed that the status of women in Nigeria in relation to those of women in the selected countries had not improved substantially in the areas of education and participation in family decision-making among others. Indeed, they were below the linear target path and there was virtually no realistic hope for rural areas in any of the countries to meet the goal.Keywords: Women, governance, demographic/Health survey, education, rural areas, Nigeria