An Analysis of Married Women’s Empowerment in Sub-Saharan Africa

Promoting women’s empowerment is good for economic development. The third Millennium Development Goal (MDG) is indeed about promoting gender equality and women’s empowerment. This empowerment is not only an important dimension of well-being, but it is also a means to achieving other development goals. Most research has explored this issue from a conceptual point of view. The aim of this study was to analyse married women’s empowerment in some Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries. It used an approach based on the structural equation model with latent variables, a model that has been developed in psychometric literature. This approach enabled the study, within the same model, to measure the socio-demographic and cultural determinants of empowerment, as well as the effects of it on other dimensions of well-being in four SSA countries (Ghana, Madagascar, Malawi, and Nigeria). Data for this study were obtained from demographic and health surveys (DHSs). The findings highlighted the significant impact of the level of wealth, household size, level of education, and fertility rate on women’s empowerment. Further, the distributive analysis used in the study revealed the existence of significant differences between countries.