The role of community-level men’s and women’s inequitable gender norms on women’s empowerment in India: A multilevel analysis using India’s National Family Health Survey–5

Background: Lower empowerment of women is a critical social issue with adverse public health implications. In India, deeply ingrained gender norms shape a patriarchal structure that creates systemic disadvantages for women relative to men. These gender norms—socially constructed expectations about the roles, behaviors, and attributes of men and women—perpetuate inequality and limit women’s opportunities. Objectives: The aim of this study was to examine the association between community-level men’s and women’s gender norms on women’s empowerment in India. Women’s empowerment was defined using four measures: freedom of movement, decision-making power, economic empowerment, and health empowerment. Methods: Using a nationally representative demographic health survey data from 2019–21 of 63,112 married women who participated in the women’s empowerment module and 101,839 men surveyed, we constructed community-level men’s and women’s inequitable gender norms variables as our independent variable using attitudes towards wife-beating questions. We used random effects logistic regression models to examine if community-level men’s and women’s inequitable gender norms were independently associated with the different dimensions of women’s empowerment. Results: One standard deviation increase in community-level men’s and women’s inequitable gender norms was associated with reduced odds of freedom of movement, decision-making power, and health empowerment. No statistically significant association was observed between community-level men’s and women’s gender norms and economic empowerment. Conclusion: Inequitable gender norms are a risk factor that is negatively associated with several dimensions of women’s empowerment. Our findings support our hypotheses that women’s empowerment is impacted separately by men’s and women’s gender norms. Our study underscores the pressing need for concerted efforts to challenge and transform inequitable gender norms, paving the way for achieving gender equality and women’s empowerment, as envisioned by the Sustainable Development Goals.