Impact of exposure to mass media on female empowerment: evidence from India

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to investigate if women’s exposure to mass media, i.e. television, radio, and print media, is a determinant of female empowerment in India. Indicators of empowerment include female autonomy in domestic decision-making, freedom of movement, financial knowledge and independence, attitudes regarding acceptability of violence against women, actual and desired fertility and use and decisions about contraception. Design/methodology/approach - Data for the analysis come from two rounds of the National Family and Health Survey, a large-scale nationally representative household survey. First, ordinary least squares estimation is used to obtain the parameter estimates. To overcome endogeneity concerns, instrumental variables estimation is also used. Findings - The results reveal a strong positive effect of exposure to mass media on women’s status in India. Research limitations/implications - These findings highlight the effectiveness of mass media in influencing women positively. Originality/value - This paper captures the cumulative effects of three types of media: television, radio and print media. It also takes advantage of the most recent data available together with using instrumental variables estimation to overcome endogeneity concerns.