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Women’s Political Empowerment: A New Global Index, 1900–2012

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  • Sundström, Aksel
  • Paxton, Pamela
  • Wang, Yi-Ting
  • Lindberg, Staffan I.

Abstract

The political empowerment of women is a societal process crucial to development and progress. The V-Dem women’s political empowerment index (WPEI) provides information about women’s civil liberties, civil society participation, and political participation globally. Spanning from 1900 to 2012, three dimensions of empowerment, and over 170 countries, it is among the most comprehensive measures of women’s empowerment available. This paper presents a conceptualization of women’s political empowerment and provides an overview of the construction of the index and operationalization of its three sub-dimensions: Women’s civil liberties, civil society participation, and political participation. Compared to other indices measuring women’s empowerment, such as the GDI, the GEM, the GII, and the CIRI data on human rights, the V-Dem index allows more precise measurement and is superior in temporal scope and coverage of countries of the Global South. The paper demonstrates the benefits of this new index and its sub-dimensions through several empirical illustrations.

Suggested Citation

  • Sundström, Aksel & Paxton, Pamela & Wang, Yi-Ting & Lindberg, Staffan I., 2017. "Women’s Political Empowerment: A New Global Index, 1900–2012," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 321-335.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:94:y:2017:i:c:p:321-335
    DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2017.01.016
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    4. O'Hara, Corey & Clement, Floriane, 2018. "Power as agency: A critical reflection on the measurement of women’s empowerment in the development sector," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 111-123.
    5. Hiller, Victor & Touré, Nouhoum, 2021. "Endogenous gender power: The two facets of empowerment," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 149(C).
    6. Lv, Zhike & Yang, Rudai, 2018. "Does women’s participation in politics increase female labor participation? Evidence from panel data analysis," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 170(C), pages 35-38.
    7. Krieger, Tim & Renner, Laura, 2018. "A cautionary tale on polygyny, conflict and gender inequality," Discussion Paper Series 2018-02, University of Freiburg, Wilfried Guth Endowed Chair for Constitutional Political Economy and Competition Policy.
    8. Biggeri, Mario & Clark, David A. & Ferrannini, Andrea & Mauro, Vincenzo, 2019. "Tracking the SDGs in an ‘integrated’ manner: A proposal for a new index to capture synergies and trade-offs between and within goals," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 628-647.
    9. Ingrid Vik Bakken & Halvard Buhaug, 2021. "Civil War and Female Empowerment," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 65(5), pages 982-1009, May.

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