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Contextual Assessment of Women Empowerment and Its Determinants: Evidence from Pakistan

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  • Khan, Safdar Ullah
  • Awan, Rabia

Abstract

The main objective of this study is to evaluate women empowerment in different contexts of family planning and economic decision making within the household. Further this paper investigates its appropriate determinants sifting through sociology resource control theory and economic bargaining theory by controlling for socio-cultural intervening factors. We examine this empirically by utilizing extensive micro level data information (15,453 households) from ‘Pakistan Social and Living Standards Measurement Survey’ (PSLM) for the year of 2005-06. Results suggest the presence of highly constrained and largely dichotomous empowerment within the household. Interestingly, we find that the number of children however not the sex of a child relevant in enhancing women’s empowerment. Further, the common determinants of empowerment depict varying degree of effectiveness depending on the specific context of empowerment. Moreover, socio-economic, level of education and employment status of a woman depict as effect modifier factors across the empowerment contexts and regions. Furthermore, geographic divisions within Pakistan, significantly explain the contextual empowerment of women.

Suggested Citation

  • Khan, Safdar Ullah & Awan, Rabia, 2011. "Contextual Assessment of Women Empowerment and Its Determinants: Evidence from Pakistan," MPRA Paper 30820, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:30820
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Shireen J. Jejeebhoy & Zeba A. Sathar, 2001. "Women's Autonomy in India and Pakistan: The Influence of Religion and Region," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 27(4), pages 687-712, December.
    2. Lupin Rahman & Vijayendra Rao, 2004. "The Determinants of Gender Equity in India: Examining Dyson and Moore's Thesis with New Data," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 30(2), pages 239-268, June.
    3. Anderson, Siwan & Eswaran, Mukesh, 2009. "What determines female autonomy? Evidence from Bangladesh," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(2), pages 179-191, November.
    4. Schuler, Sidney Ruth & Hashemi, Syed Mesbahuddin & Riley, Ann P., 1997. "The influence of women's changing roles and status in Bangladesh's fertility transition: Evidence from a study of credit programs and contraceptive use," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 25(4), pages 563-575, January.
    5. Goetz, Anne Marie & Gupta, Rina Sen, 1996. "Who takes the credit? Gender, power, and control over loan use in rural credit programs in Bangladesh," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 45-63, January.
    6. Winkvist, Anna & Akhtar, Humaira Zareen, 2000. "God should give daughters to rich families only: attitudes towards childbearing among low-income women in Punjab, Pakistan," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 51(1), pages 73-81, July.
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    Cited by:

    1. Ahmad, Nuzhat & Khan, Huma, 2016. "Measuring women’s disempowerment in agriculture in Pakistan:," IFPRI discussion papers 1512, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    2. Komal Urooj & Tusawar Iftikhar Ahmad & Muhammad Azhar Bhatti & Altaf Hussain, 2022. "Drivers of Family Planning Services Utilization in Pakistan: A Literature Survey and Recent Trends in Contraceptive Use," iRASD Journal of Economics, International Research Alliance for Sustainable Development (iRASD), vol. 4(2), pages 275-295, June.
    3. Ragui Assaad & Hanan Nazier & Rasha Ramadan, 2015. "Empowerment is a Community Affair: Community Level Determinants of Married Women's Empowerment in Egypt," Working Papers 959, Economic Research Forum, revised Oct 2015.
    4. Varsha P. S. & Gayathri Reddy K. & Sudheendra Rao L. N. & Amit Kumar, 2019. "Impact of self-help groups, capacity building measures and perceived tension on women empowerment- an empirical study," Asian Journal of Empirical Research, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 9(3), pages 65-87, March.
    5. Ragui Assaad & Hanan Nazier & Racha Ramadan, 2014. "Individual and Households Determinants of Women Empowerment: Application to the Case of Egypt," Working Papers 867, Economic Research Forum, revised Nov 2014.
    6. Nuzhat Ahmad & Huma Khan, 2016. "Measuring Women’s Disempowerment in Agriculture in Pakistan," Working Papers id:10150, eSocialSciences.
    7. Komal Urooj & Tusawar Iftikhar Ahmad & Muhammad Azhar Bhatti & Altaf Hussain, 2022. "Women Empowerment in Pakistan: Multilevel Measurements, Spatial Differences, and Contributing Factors," iRASD Journal of Economics, International Research Alliance for Sustainable Development (iRASD), vol. 4(3), pages 480-499, September.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Contextual empowerment; family planning decision making; economic decision making; socio-cultural; ordered logistic regressions.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • C42 - Mathematical and Quantitative Methods - - Econometric and Statistical Methods: Special Topics - - - Survey Methods
    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification

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