IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jecomi/v13y2025i2p35-d1582002.html

Determinants of Women Empowerment: Case of Refugee Women Living in Nairobi Kenya

Author

Listed:
  • Judy Kaaria

    (Kiel Institute for the World Economy, 24105 Kiel, Germany)

  • Immaculate Kathomi Murithi

    (Kenya Revenue Authority, Nairobi 69-60400, Kenya)

Abstract

This study investigates the determinants of women empowerment among refugee women living in Nairobi, Kenya. First, the study constructs an index to examine empowerment drivers using data from the Refugee and Host Household Survey (RHHS) 2021. A fractional logit regression model was employed in the study. The results obtained show that the incidence of refugee women empowerment among refugees living in Nairobi was six percent. In addition, the study finds evidence that age; the gender of the household head; the education level of the refugee woman; employment status; and the education of the household head play substantial roles in enabling women empowerment. Conversely, marital statuses (divorced/separated/widowed and single/never married) and religious affiliations (Muslim) hinder women empowerment. Efforts geared towards improving wage employment and education are likely to empower refugee women. The study emphasizes the recognition of the role played by women in household income through care work.

Suggested Citation

  • Judy Kaaria & Immaculate Kathomi Murithi, 2025. "Determinants of Women Empowerment: Case of Refugee Women Living in Nairobi Kenya," Economies, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-19, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jecomi:v:13:y:2025:i:2:p:35-:d:1582002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7099/13/2/35/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2227-7099/13/2/35/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mohammed Gbanja Abdulai & Mubarik Salifu & Paul Bata Domanban, 2024. "Determinants of multi-dimensional women empowerment in Mali," Cogent Economics & Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 12(1), pages 2383098-238, December.
    2. Betts, Alexander & Flinder Stierna, Maria & Omata, Naohiko & Sterck, Olivier, 2024. "The economic lives of refugees," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    3. Jeffrey M. Wooldridge, 2011. "Fractional response models with endogeneous explanatory variables and heterogeneity," CHI11 Stata Conference 12, Stata Users Group.
    4. Berhanu Kuma & Abebech Godana, 2023. "Factors affecting rural women economic empowerment in Wolaita Ethiopia," Cogent Economics & Finance, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 11(2), pages 2235823-223, June.
    5. Naila Kabeer, 1999. "Resources, Agency, Achievements: Reflections on the Measurement of Women's Empowerment," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 30(3), pages 435-464, July.
    6. 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).
    7. Maissa Khatib & Tanya Purwar & Rushabh Shah & Maricarmen Vizcaino & Luciano Castillo, 2024. "Empowerment and integration of refugee women: a transdisciplinary approach," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-18, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Lu Gram & Joanna Morrison & Jolene Skordis-Worrall, 2019. "Organising Concepts of ‘Women’s Empowerment’ for Measurement: A Typology," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 143(3), pages 1349-1376, June.
    2. Jayachandran, Seema & Biradavolu, Monica & Cooper, Jan, 2021. "Using Machine Learning and Qualitative Interviews to Design a Five-Question Women's Agency Index," IZA Discussion Papers 14221, IZA Network @ LISER.
    3. Maiorano, Diego & Shrimankar, Dishil & Thapar-Björkert, Suruchi & Blomkvist, Hans, 2021. "Measuring empowerment: Choices, values and norms," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    4. Seymour, Greg & Peterman, Amber, 2018. "Context and measurement: An analysis of the relationship between intrahousehold decision making and autonomy," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 97-112.
    5. Kalyani Raghunathan & Mai Mahmoud & Jessica Heckert & Gayathri Ramani & Greg Seymour, 2025. "Do Estimates of Women’s Control over Income and Decisionmaking Vary Across Nationally Representative Survey Programs?," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 179(1), pages 95-122, August.
    6. Jayachandran, Seema & Biradavolu, Monica & Cooper, Jan, 2023. "Using machine learning and qualitative interviews to design a five-question survey module for women’s agency," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 161(C).
    7. Catherine Bros & Véronique Gille & François Maniquet, 2023. "Female labour, status and decision power," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 90(358), pages 453-476, April.
    8. Lecoutere, Els & Spielman, David J. & Van Campenhout, Bjorn, 2023. "Empowering women through targeting information or role models: Evidence from an experiment in agricultural extension in Uganda," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 167(C).
    9. Neida Albornoz-Arias & Camila Rojas-Sanguino & Akever-Karina Santafe-Rojas, 2025. "Rural Women’s Leadership Within the Cocoa Production Chain in Tibú, Norte de Santander, Colombia: A Gender Perspective," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-26, February.
    10. Bergolo, Marcelo & Galván, Estefanía, 2018. "Intra-household Behavioral Responses to Cash Transfer Programs. Evidence from a Regression Discontinuity Design," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 100-118.
    11. Chloé van Biljon & Dieter von Fintel & Atika Pasha, 2018. "Bargaining to work: the effect of female autonomy on female labour supply," Working Papers 04/2018, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.
    12. Helen M. Haugh & Alka Talwar, 2016. "Linking Social Entrepreneurship and Social Change: The Mediating Role of Empowerment," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 133(4), pages 643-658, February.
    13. Rao, Nitya, 2017. "Assets, Agency and Legitimacy: Towards a Relational Understanding of Gender Equality Policy and Practice," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 43-54.
    14. Kathryn M Yount & Agnes Quisumbing & Ruth Meinzen-Dick & Hazel Malapit & Md Zahidul Hassan & Shelton S E Kanyanda & Sudhindra Sharma & Md Imrul Hassan & Jessica Heckert & Flor Paz & Pankaj Pokhrel & W, 2026. "Women’s Empowerment Metric for National Statistical Systems (WEMNS): Development and psychometric assessment of a face-to-face survey module," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 21(5), pages 1-27, May.
    15. DeJaeghere, Joan & Pellowski Wiger, Nancy & Le, Hue & Luong, Phuong & Ngo, Nga Thi Hang & Vu, Thanh Thi & Lee, Jongwook, 2022. "Why do aspirations matter for empowerment?: Discrepancies between the A-WEAI domains and aspirations of ethnic minority women in Vietnam," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    16. Bonis-Profumo, Gianna & Stacey, Natasha & Brimblecombe, Julie, 2021. "Measuring women's empowerment in agriculture, food production, and child and maternal dietary diversity in Timor-Leste," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 102(C).
    17. Castro-Bernardo, Maria Theresa M. & Cruz, Liezel S., 2022. "How Do Cooperatives Enable Empowerment Among Rural Women? Evidence from the Municipality of Cavinti, Laguna," Journal of Economics, Management & Agricultural Development, Journal of Economics, Management & Agricultural Development (JEMAD), vol. 8(2), December.
    18. K. Gayathri Reddy & Varsha, P. S. & L. N. Sudheendra Rao & Amit Kumar, 2019. "Exploring dimension, perceived individual tension and capacity building measure of women empowerment in India," Asian Journal of Empirical Research, Asian Economic and Social Society, vol. 9(5), pages 111-131, May.
    19. Awoa Awoa, Paul & Atangana Ondoa, Henri & Ngoa Tabi, Henri, 2022. "Women's political empowerment and natural resource curse in developing countries," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    20. Alice W Clark & T V Sekher, 2007. "Can Career-Minded Young Women Reverse Gender Discrimination?," Working Papers 179, Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jecomi:v:13:y:2025:i:2:p:35-:d:1582002. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager The email address of this maintainer does not seem to be valid anymore. Please ask MDPI Indexing Manager to update the entry or send us the correct address (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.