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Women’s empowerment in East Africa: Development of a cross-country comparable measure

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  • Miedema, Stephanie Spaid
  • Haardörfer, Regine
  • Girard, Amy Webb
  • Yount, Kathryn M.

Abstract

Women’s empowerment is an indicator of social change and a priority of the Sustainable Development Goals. Debate continues on what domains constitute women’s empowerment and how to measure empowerment across countries. Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) are the most widely available source of data on women’s empowerment. However, measurement invariance often is assumed, but not tested. We used DHS data from Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda to test factor structure and measurement invariance of women’s empowerment among married women ages 15–49. Factor analysis confirmed a three-latent-domain model of women’s empowerment in each country capturing women’s human/social assets, gender attitudes related to wife abuse, and women’s participation in household decisions. Multi-country confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) identified an invariant three-factor model of women’s empowerment and a subset of country-specific items. Our results offer a standardized, invariant measure of women’s empowerment that can be applied to monitor women’s empowerment cross-nationally in East Africa, and possibly beyond.

Suggested Citation

  • Miedema, Stephanie Spaid & Haardörfer, Regine & Girard, Amy Webb & Yount, Kathryn M., 2018. "Women’s empowerment in East Africa: Development of a cross-country comparable measure," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 453-464.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:110:y:2018:i:c:p:453-464
    DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2018.05.031
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    2. Bhojani, Alina & Alsager, Alya & McCann, Juliet K. & Joachim, Damas & Kabati, Mary & Jeong, Joshua, 2024. "“If my wife earns more than me, she will force me to do what she wants”: Women’s economic empowerment and family caregiving dynamics in Tanzania," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 179(C).
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    4. Frola, Alessia & Delprato, Marcos & Chudgar, Amita, 2024. "Lack of educational access, women's empowerment and spatial education inequality for the Eastern and Western Africa regions," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
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    6. Shen-Tsu Wang & Meng-Hua Li & Chun-Chi Lien, 2019. "An Analysis of Grey Multiattribute Decision-Making Optimization Concerning Gender and Sustainable Environment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-15, May.
    7. Yount, Kathryn M. & Cheong, Yuk Fai & Maxwell, Lauren & Heckert, Jessica & Martinez, Elena M. & Seymour, Gregory, 2019. "Measurement properties of the project-level Women's Empowerment in Agriculture Index," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 124(C), pages 1-1.
    8. Jones, Rebecca E. & Haardörfer, Regine & Ramakrishnan, Usha & Yount, Kathryn M. & Miedema, Stephanie S. & Roach, Timmie D. & Girard, Amy Webb, 2020. "Intrinsic and instrumental agency associated with nutritional status of East African women," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 247(C).
    9. Cassidy, Rachel & Groot Bruinderink, Marije & Janssens, Wendy & Morsink, Karlijn, 2021. "The power to protect: Household bargaining and female condom use," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    10. Kelly Pike & Beth English, 2022. "And roses too: How “Better Work” facilitates gender empowerment in global supply chains," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(1), pages 188-204, January.
    11. Peterman, Amber & Schwab, Benjamin & Roy, Shalini & Hidrobo, Melissa & Gilligan, Daniel O., 2021. "Measuring women’s decisionmaking: Indicator choice and survey design experiments from cash and food transfer evaluations in Ecuador, Uganda and Yemen," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 141(C).
    12. Malapit, Hazel & Quisumbing, Agnes & Meinzen-Dick, Ruth & Seymour, Greg & Martinez, Elena M. & Heckert, Jessica & Rubin, Deborah & Vaz, Ana & Yount, Kathryn M., 2019. "Development of the project-level Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (pro-WEAI)," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 675-692.
    13. Mehdi Ghasemi & Mohammad Badsar & Leila Falahati & Esmail Karamidehkordi, 2021. "The mediation effect of rural women empowerment between social factors and environment conservation (combination of empowerment and ecofeminist theories)," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(9), pages 13755-13777, September.
    14. Treleaven, Emily, 2023. "The relationship between extended kin resources and children's healthcare utilization: An analysis of family networks," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 321(C).

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